June, 28 2018, 12:00am EDT
Wisconsinites Shut Down Highway Near Trump Fundraiser to Protest Family Separation and Imprisonment
On Thursday, hundreds of people marched and blocked streets around a fundraiser Donald Trump held for Wisconsin Republicans in protest of Trump's plans to intern tens of thousands of immigrant families in border camps.
Milwaukee
On Thursday, hundreds of people marched and blocked streets around a fundraiser Donald Trump held for Wisconsin Republicans in protest of Trump's plans to intern tens of thousands of immigrant families in border camps. Marchers called for ICE and Customs and Border Patrol to be abolished and replaced by institutions that support and welcome immigrants, and demanded ICE close the case of Franco Ferreyra, a Waukesha father of 4 currently imprisoned by ICE. A dozen community members blocked an interstate off-ramp into downtown, backing up traffic for miles.
"Our movement shut down streets and a major highway today to send a message to Trump and his rich donors," said Christine Neumann-Ortiz, Executive Director of Voces de la Frontera. "We will not stand idly by while Trump tries to build modern-day internment camps and wages a campaign of state-sponsored terror against immigrant families, Muslims, and refugee children. We will do everything in our power to block his white nationalist agenda. ICE and CBP must be abolished and replaced with institutions that welcome and integrate immigrants and refugees. We must stop deportations and reunite families like Franco Ferreyra's that have been separated. Today we showed that Trump's hate is not welcome in Wisconsin."
Community members gathered at Zeidler Union Square in Milwaukee before marching toward the Pfister Hotel, where Trump's private fundraiser was scheduled to begin at 9:30am. When the march arrived at a police line outside the hotel, 12 people moved into the street and blocked traffic, gathering around a banner reading "Families Belong in Communities Not Cages." The group then moved to other street corners near the fundraiser before settling in front of the I-794 off ramp into downtown. After blocking the interstate for over half an hour, the protesters held a program before marching back to Zeidler Park. From the park, many left for Racine for the continued protests against Trump and Foxconn.
"This is not a normal time," said Rabbi David Cohen of Congregation Sinai in Milwaukee, who took part in the street blockade. "As a Jew, I can say that our history tells us what happens when we hear leaders saying that they're closing borders until we figure out whats going on. We have heard this voice before. When we hear children being told to go one way -- to take a shower -- and their parents to go another way, we have heard those lies before. In 36 places, the Bible underscores the responsibility we have for the stranger, for the people among us who are powerless. It is our job to give them safety."
"One night when I was 7 years old, we got a phone call that changed my life forever," said Isabel Martinez, 13, of Manitowoc. "It was my dad saying he was picked up by ICE. It has been almost 6 years since I have felt my dad's arms around me. The pain that I carry will never go away. So Trump, I say to you, when you enact these disgusting policies, I hope you think of me and the millions of kids like me left to pick up the pieces."
"ICE needs to return Franco Ferreyra to his kids," said Lucy Corona, a high school classmate of Franco. "His kids need him. He's done nothing wrong. Everyone that knows him knows he's a great guy who does nothing but help everyone around him. We need to keep families together, and Trump needs to know that. Bring Franco home." An online petition demanding ICE release Franco can be found at vdlf.org/freefranco.
Voces de la Frontera is Wisconsin's leading immigrant rights group - a grassroots organization that believes power comes from below and that people can overcome injustice to build a better world.
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Building trades unions and their rank-and-file members are generally seen as more conservative and pro-Trump than other elements of the U.S. labor movement. In 2017, McGarvey celebrated Trump's effort to advance construction work on the Keystone XL pipeline, a massive fossil fuel project that Biden effectively killed in 2021 after years of organizing by environmentalists and Indigenous tribes.
But NABTU's leadership endorsed Clinton over Trump in the 2016 presidential election and Biden over Trump in 2020.
In a five-minute ad released Wednesday, the union highlights Trump's pledge to be a dictator on "day one" and condemns the former president as a dangerous egomaniac.
NABTU called for Trump's resignation after the January 6, 2021 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.
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Wow. You may have seen a short version of the North America Building Trade Union ( @NABTU) video endorsement of Biden. The full video is incredible and absolutely devastating for Trump. They did not hold back. A must watch till the end. pic.twitter.com/stL7b7JazP
— MeidasTouch (@MeidasTouch) April 24, 2024
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Idaho is among the over 20 states that have tightened restrictions on abortion since the high court's right-wing majority reversedRoe v. Wade nearly two years ago with Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization. Since August 2022, abortions have been banned in the state except for reported cases of rape or incest or when "necessary to prevent the death" of the pregnant person.
"If the court does not uphold emergency abortion care protections, this ruling will have devastating consequences for pregnant people."
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In a lively argument, questions by the justices suggested a divide along ideological lines, as well as a possible split by gender on the court. Justice Amy Coney Barrett, a conservative, appeared skeptical that Idaho's law, which bars doctors from providing abortions unless a woman's life is in danger or in specific nonviable pregnancies, superseded the federal law.
The argument also raised a broader question about whether some of the conservative justices, particularly Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr., may be prepared to embrace language of fetal personhood, that is, the notion that a fetus would have the same rights as a pregnant woman.
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The case has renewed arguments for considering changes to the country's top court, which over the past few years has not only seen plummeting levels of public trust but also been rocked by repeated ethics scandals.
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