Local immigration advocates protest Trump administration policies

About 120 people held a march and rally in downtown Santa Rosa on Thursday afternoon, protesting federal immigration policies they say are separating thousands of children from parents seeking asylum in the United States.

The demonstration was part of a coordinated effort in ?50 cities across the country. Organizers said more than 5,000 people had signed up to join the Families Belong Together rallies, aimed at halting one of the most widely debated new fronts in the Trump administration’s campaign to slow the flow of migrants across the southwest border from Mexico and Central America.

Protesters marched from Old Courthouse Square to the John F. Shea Federal Building and back, calling on Congress to block the U.S. Attorney General’s decision to prosecute parents who cross the border illegally, including many seeking asylum.

Such criminal prosecutions result in children being taken from their parents. The children are often sent to foster homes or held in detention camps, the advocates said.

“The separation of kids from parents is really grotesque - that’s got to be a human rights violation,” said Richard Coshnear, a local immigration attorney who heads Comité VIDA, a volunteer immigrant rights organization.

Family separations increased sharply this spring after the Justice Department began implementing a “zero tolerance” policy for people entering the country illegally. Under the directive, announced in May, families crossing the border are routinely referred for criminal prosecution. Previously, families were often sent to civil deportation proceedings, which allow children to stay with their parents.

During the criminal proceedings, the children are usually released to other family members or foster care.

The local march and rally were organized by Comité VIDA and the Graton Day Labor Center.

Shannon McClain, a marketing specialist from New York who helped coordinate the nationwide campaign, said “Our goal is to shine a light on the … trauma that family separation inflicts on these children and their families and how wrong and, frankly un-American that is.”

McClain said she began planning for the rallies after learning about the campaign on Twitter. Interest in the event grew exponentially, she said, as volunteers, many of them outraged mothers, jumped in to help.

This article includes information from the New York Times. You can reach Staff Writer Martin Espinoza at 707-521-5213.