Organizers of a local rally do not expect near record heat on Saturday to keep people from protesting the Trump administration’s immigration policies.
Some twenty faith and social justice groups are planning the afternoon event at Washington Square Park to coincide with the hundreds of rallies and marches that are planned across the nation.
Immigrants who have spent years fighting to change the country's immigration system are getting newfound support from liberal activists, moms and first-time protesters motivated by a visceral narrative: President Donald Trump's administration separating children from their parents at the U.S.-Mexico border.
"This administration in particular touts itself as a Christian administration,” said Rev. Myra Brown, associate pastor at Spiritus Christi Church in Rochester. “Well, everything they're doing goes against the teachings of Jesus. Jesus welcomed children; Jesus himself said 'let the children come unto me.' Jesus himself said 'welcome the stranger.' "
Brown does not believe President Trump's executive order last week ending the practice of family separation at the border was sincere.
An estimated 2,000 children have already been removed from their families.
"If the intention is to let them go, then you let them go if you write that order. You don't write the order to let them go one day and then the next day, ask the court to give you more time to keep them. That says it's not genuine."
The Washington Park rally will start Saturday at 3 p.m. Organizers say they will have water and a first aid station on hand as temperatures are expected to soar into the mid-nineties on Saturday.
