Protests against the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown are spreading across the United States with several organizations planning to launch demonstrations on Saturday that are meant to coincide with a military parade in Washington, D.C. on the president’s 79th birthday.
The groups No Kings and 50501 have partnered to host protests in a wide range of states including New York, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Tennessee, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Texas, California and other places.
Separate protests are also scheduled to take place in Austin, Texas, as Gov. Greg Abbott (R-Texas) said he’s prepared to deploy the state’s National Guard.
The protests come after initial demonstrations in Los Angeles against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids. Some of those demonstrations led to violence and the destruction of property, which led Trump to call in the National Guard over the objections of California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass.
The Pentagon this week sent 700 Marines to Los Angeles in another step Newsom criticized as provocative.
The battle has set off a legal fight and appears to be leading to new protests now across the nation.
“They’ve defied our courts, deported Americans, disappeared people off the streets, attacked our civil rights, and slashed our services. The corruption has gone too far. No thrones. No crowns. No kings,” protest organizers wrote in a statement on their website.
They’re holding Zoom calls in the days leading up to Saturday to plan, prepare and mobilize in the streets to combat the president’s crackdown on illegal immigration.
Instead of protesting in Washington during Trump’s massive military parade in honor of the Army’s 250th birthday, No Kings said they would host an event in Philadelphia.
“Instead of allowing this birthday parade to be the center of gravity, we will make action everywhere else the story of America that day: people coming together in communities across the country to reject strongman politics and corruption,” the group wrote on their website.
“For that reason, NO KINGS is not hosting an event in Washington, D.C. We will instead have a major flagship march and rally in Philadelphia to draw a clear contrast between our people-powered movement and the costly, wasteful, and un-American birthday parade in Washington.”
Trump said protestors who attempt to disrupt the military parade in Washington would be met with a “very big force” in a post on social media prior to calling demonstrators “animals” during remarks at Fort Bragg in North Carolina.
“These are animals, but they proudly carry the flags of other countries. They don’t carry the American flag. They only burn it. Did you see a lot of the flags being burned?” Trump told soldiers.
“They weren’t being burned by people from our country, or from people that love our country. People that burn the American flag should go to jail for one year,” he continued.
His words come after days of demonstrations and large scale protests in Los Angeles.