As President Donald Trump arrived in California on Tuesday for the first time since taking office to examine border wall "prototypes" and attend a $35,000-per-person fundraiser, protests organized throughout the state delivered a clear message: "Trump is not welcome here."
"I don't stand with the border wall and what it represents, which is hatred and bigotry."
"For me, this is a human rights issue. It doesn't matter if I'm from Mexico or not, or Central America or not," one demonstrator told KPBS's Jean Guerrero at a protest site in San Diego, referring to Trump's proposed wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. "I don't stand with the border wall and what it represents, which is hatred and bigotry."
Organized by numerous California-based groups including Women's March San Diego and Indivisible Los Angeles, the protests are expected to continue into the evening.
The largest demonstration—titled "Trump Out of Los Angeles"—is set to begin in the late afternoon. According to the event's Facebook page, 250 people have said they are attending and over a thousand have expressed interest.
"The nation will see how Los Angeles feels about Trump," the organizers declared. "This is our chance to let the world know how we feel about this administration's policies."
Trump's visit to California comes just a week after the Justice Department filed a lawsuit against California for its policies that protect undocumented immigrations from deportation. Immigrant rights groups denounced the suit as "yet another example of Donald Trump's relentless attack on immigrant communities."
California Attorney General Xavier Becerra, who joined immigrant rights groups in slamming the Justice Department's lawsuit, ridiculed Trump's proposed border wall as "medieval" at a news conference ahead of the president's visit on Tuesday.
"Some people think that medieval walls might keep us safe in this country," Becerra said, adding that a wall "might keep us safe from knights on horses."
