Hundreds of citizens braved near 90-degree heat in State College on Saturday to protest the Trump administration’s immigration policies. The sidewalk in front of the Allen Street gates, bordering Penn State’s University Park Campus, couldn’t hold the crowd. Some stood on the grass behind the gates, others held their homemade signs across the street.
"A lot of us came out in this sweltering heat because we’re not really OK with what’s going on in this country right now regarding immigrants and people seeking asylum," said Jerome Clarke, a graduate student at Penn State. "We’re turning them away, if not capturing them and keeping them in cages and separating families and all of that.
" I am very much against putting children in concentration camps," said Robert Scott of Dubois. He said he thinks President Trump is using migrant children as political leverage. "He is holding them hostage so that he can get the Democrats to go along with stronger immigration and building his wall."
The protestors stood for around an hour, holding signs and listening to speeches, delivered via bullhorn, by members of various groups. One speaker was Reverend Carol Thomas Cissel, of the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship in State College. She had harsh words for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE.
"ICE is tearing families apart," Thomas Cissel said. "ICE is systemically destroying lives."
The rally was one of hundreds of “Families Belong Together” events, organized to protest Trump's immigration policies, held around the country on Saturday.
I’m Kristine Allen, WPSU
