LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- At least 17 arrests were made at an immigration rally outside an ICE detention center in downtown L.A. on Monday.After ordering protesters to disperse near the entrance of the Metropolitan Detention Center, police began arresting people for unlawful assembly around 11 a.m.Among those arrested was L.A. City Councilman Mike Bonin, who addressed the crowd of peaceful demonstrators. "Our government is inflicting knowing, intentional trauma upon the most innocent and the most vulnerable," Bonin said into a megaphone before being arrested.The demonstrators were protesting the federal immigration policy of separating families detained illegally crossing the U.S. border.<doc-sep>Galvanized by the images and voices of migrant children separated from their parents by President Trump’s immigration policies, hundreds of thousands took to the streets Saturday in major cities and small towns across America to express outrage that they hope will carry over into the fall election. From coast to coast, several hundred rallies dubbed Families Belong Together ranged from the large and boisterous — thousands clogging the Brooklyn Bridge in New York — to more modest ones, such as a protest that drew about 200 people to a street corner in West Hartford, Conn. In Los Angeles, tens of thousands assembled in front of City Hall just before noon in a star- and politician-studded rally that centered on messages of humanity and empathy transcending borders. Organizers said they were not only protesting the separation of families but also Trump policies “criminalizing” migrants and leaving in limbo the fate of those protected under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which shielded from deportation young immigrants brought here illegally when they were children. “Human rights should have no border!” one protester yelled at the start of the L.A. rally, as children waved signs that read: “Familia, sí! Trump, no, no, no!” and “Love cannot be stopped.” Advertisement “When we have children in cages crying for their mommies and daddies, we know we are better than this,” Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) told the crowd. “When we know those children will suffer lifelong trauma, and that this is not reflective of a civil society, we know we are better than this.” Many marchers were veterans of protests against other Trump administration policies, including the Women’s March and the March for Science, but some were newly energized to speak up. For Debbie Greenspan, a protest Saturday in Hollywood, Fla., was the first demonstration she ever attended. “I just can’t bear babies being taken from their parents or even putting the whole family in jail,” Greenspan said. “I mean, what is wrong with these people? It’s beyond comprehension.” In Washington, thousands of people braved intense heat to march through the National Mall and rally across from the White House. Actress Diane Guerrero, star of the Netflix series “Orange is the New Black,” recounted her own immigration experience before the crowd. “Do we want to be an America that values children and families?” she asked. “This time the stakes are too visible ... too well-documented to be ignored.” Trump’s “zero tolerance” immigration policy has come under fire in recent weeks after it resulted in the separation of more than 2,000 children from their parents or guardians crossing the border. Trump last week announced that the administration would end the policy, but the government has reunited only a small handful of the families involved. Administration officials revealed Friday in court filings before a federal judge in Los Angeles that rather than separate families, they now plan to hold parents and children together in indefinite detention as they await their court dates. As the overcast morning gave way to a sunny afternoon in Los Angeles, protesters dressed in white chanted: “Where are the children?” Advertisement Jimmy “Taboo” Gomez of the musical group Black Eyed Peas riled up the crowd with the hit song “Where is the Love?” Gomez told the protesters that the song was written in the aftermath of 9/11. “And so many years later, in 2018, we’re still asking the same questions: Where is the love?” he said. Among those who later took to a megaphone was Antonio Lopez, who carried a large American flag and a sign that predicted “lots of work for the lawyers of this country.” He said Trump deserves to be jailed for his immigration policies. “Donald Trump is kidnapping those kids,” he said. “It’s a violation of the Constitution.” Advertisement Speakers turned Trump’s immigration policy on its head and said it was the administration that should get “zero tolerance” for separating families, jailing asylum seekers and violating migrants’ due process rights. When one speaker led the crowd in a chant of “Trump, where’s your heart?” Lopez said, “No lo tiene” — he doesn’t have one. Litzy Del Valle, 17, and five of her friends — all children of Mexican immigrants — woke up at 6 a.m. to secure spots at the rally. They wore matching shirts that said “No somos criminales” — we aren’t criminals. Del Valle said her parents came to the U.S. in 1986 fleeing poverty in Puebla, Mexico. Her dad trekked through the desert to get here. He now works in construction, and her mother as a cashier, all for a better life for their children, she said. Since Trump’s election, dismayed by the rhetoric on immigrants, they’ve been talking about returning to Puebla, where her father has been paying off a plot of land, Del Valle said. As she prepares to start college in the fall, Del Valle said she worries that her parents won’t get to witness her success. Advertisement “To think I have a home and a roof over my head because of what they did — it inspires me to build a better America so no one has to go through that,” she said. Protesting alongside teenagers like Del Valle was 86-year-old Armony Share of Sherman Oaks, who had a more historical perspective in her criticism of the Trump administration for what she said was its lack of compassion for those fleeing crime and persecution in their home countries. “The Jews were turned away [from America] when they were able to escape from Europe in World War II,” she said. “Are we doing the same thing to these people? When you’re against one group, you’re against all of them.” Share’s parents, who are Russian and Polish, fled brewing anti-Semitism in the 1920s. She was born in Mexico and eventually found her home in the U.S. in 1941. Advertisement Even though she doesn’t expect the Trump administration to hear the message of Saturday’s marches, Share said she felt she had to voice her opposition. “If you’re silent, you’re complicit,” she said. Groups that joined forces to put together the Los Angeles rally included the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles, the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California, and Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice. In addition to Harris, politicians including Mayor Eric Garcetti and Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, who is running for governor, spoke at the rally. Singer-songwriter John Legend sang his message, performing a new song written for the occasion called “Preach.” He urged people to take action, saying that it’s not enough to preach. He told the crowd that migrants should be seen “as human beings who deserve the chance to flourish.” Advertisement “It requires you see through the eyes of another,” he said. “You can’t just talk about it, or read about it. You’ve got to do something!” Jimmy “Taboo” Gomez, left, a member of the pop group the Black Eyed Peas, greets protesters after performing at the Families Belong Together rally in L.A. (Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times ) The midterm elections were on the minds of protesters all over the country. In Dallas, marchers carried signs reading, “November is coming.” In Denver, protesters at the state Capitol chanted: “Vote them out! Vote them out!” “I think it’s very important to keep this energy going,” said Jason Moses, 44, of Denver. “It’s a great motivating factor for the November elections.” Advertisement Many marchers said the issue was deeply personal. In West Hartford, Christine Brea said she was moved to join the rally partly because her grandmother was a Navajo separated from her parents in childhood. “It seems history is repeating itself,” Brea said. “I’m heartbroken.” Marching in Chicago was Margo Chavez-Easley, who immigrated to the U.S. from Guatemala with her mother when she was 9. Advertisement “To be an immigrant and an American, I feel a mix of pride and shame,” Chavez-Easley said. “... That’s a child’s biggest fear, is to lose their mom and dad.” Protesting side by side in Denver were Henny Pattirane, 26, an immigrant from Indonesia, and her friend Joseline Umulisa, also 26, an immigrant from Rwanda. Umulisa said she was moved to tears when she thought about what some immigrants had been through. “The only reason you were born here is because you were lucky,” she said. “I came out today because I had to do something, and it beats crying in your bed.” Advertisement Times staff writers Castillo, Xia and Kim reported from Los Angeles, and special correspondent Kelly reported from Denver. Times staff writer Tracy Wilkinson in Washington and the Chicago Tribune, Hartford Courant and South Florida Sun-Sentinel contributed to this report. andrea.castillo@latimes.com Twitter: @andreamcastillo rosanna.xia@latimes.com Advertisement Twitter: @RosannaXia victoria.kim@latimes.com Twitter: @vicjkim UPDATES: Advertisement 7:40 p.m.: This article was updated with more comments and new information from rallies around the country. 4:50 p.m.: This article was updated with more comments from protesters in L.A. and around the country. 3:15 p.m.: This article was updated with more comments from protesters in L.A. and around the country. 1:40 p.m.: This article was updated with comments from protesters around the country. Advertisement 1:30 p.m.: This article was updated with more comments from demonstrators at L.A. rally. 12:55 p.m.: This article was updated with comments from demonstrators at the L.A. rally. 12:35 p.m.: This article was updated with more comments from speakers at the rally, including Sen. Kamala Harris and singer John Legend. 11:55 a.m.: This article was updated with new comments from demonstrators and performer Jimmy “Taboo” Gomez. Advertisement 11:25 a.m.: This article was updated with new information about rallies across the country. This article was originally published at 9:10 a.m.<doc-sep>
LOS ANGELES (CBSLA) – Thousands of people gathered in downtown Los Angeles Saturday for a march and rally to decry the separation and detention of immigrant families. The “Families Belong Together – Freedom for Immigrants March” began at 11 a.m. outside L.A. City Hall. “If you are pro-family, you cannot separate families,” L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti said to the crowd. “Mr. Trump, do your job. ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement), do your job …” Garcetti said. The mayor’s speech was followed by remarks from model Chrissy Teigen, and then a performance of “What’s Goin’ On” and a new song, titled “Preach,” by her husband, singer and musician John Legend. “This an inflection moment,” California Sen. Kamala Harris said. “This is a moment in time that is requiring us to look in a mirror and ask a question, and that question is `Who are we?’ I believe the answer is `We are better than this.”‘ South Los Angeles Rep. Maxine Waters, who has been embroiled in an escalating war of words with Trump in recent days, later took the stage and did not hold back. “I know there are those who are talking about censuring me, kicking me out of Congress … shooting me,” Waters said, alluding to recent death threats that prompted her to cancel two speaking events in the South she had planned for this weekend. “If you shoot me, you better shoot straight — there’s nothing like a wounded animal.” Other scheduled speakers included Secretary of State Alex Padilla, county Supervisor Hilda Solis, California Lt. Gov. and gubernatorial candidate Gavin Newsom, and Sen. Kevin De Leon, D-Los Angeles. MoveOn, CHIRLA, the Black Alliance for Just Immigration, the Women’s March LA Foundation and the Council on American-Islamic Relations were among the many groups participating. The “Families Belong Together – Freedom for Immigrants March,” was set to follow the rally, and will end in front of the immigration holding facility on Aliso and Alameda streets. Attendees were urged to wear white in a show of unity. The L.A. march is among more than 700 protests planned nationwide. CBS2’s Greg Mills said the LAPD estimated the LA crowd at about 75.000. Other #FamiliesBelongTogether Southern California rally locations include Pasadena, Irvine, Malibu, Laguna Beach, Carlsbad, National City, Ramona, San Diego, Palm Springs, Moreno Valley, Riverside and Temecula. The Los Angeles march will be the second major demonstration focused on the Trump administration’s immigration policy to be held within a week downtown, following a series of protests and rallies that occurred Tuesday when Attorney General Jeff Sessions came to town for a speech. About a dozen clergy members were arrested that day outside the federal courthouse at 312 N. Spring St. after refusing to move out of the street when the Los Angeles Police Department declared an unlawful assembly. The attorney general’s visit came on the same day that the U.S. Supreme Court upheld President Donald Trump’s ban on foreign visitors and immigrants from seven nations. For the past several weeks, the Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” policy on undocumented immigrants — including the now-rescinded policy of separating children from their parents when they are apprehended at the Mexican border — has sparked an international outcry. Trump agreed to rescind the separation part of the policy, but opponents say the administration has no plan for the speedy reunification of those families. On Friday, the U.S. Justice Department filed papers in Los Angeles federal court seeking to have the families held together, indefinitely, in detention centers. A smaller counter-protest by the group L.A. County for Trump was scheduled for 12:30 p.m. at the federal detention center at 535 N. Alameda St. Both sided screamed at each other but police kept the groups separated. “We have a number of our members in L.A. County for Trump will be broadcasting our counter-protest live on Facebook and YouTube,” organizer Arthur Schaper said. “We will also have posters, signs and shirts that commemorate Americans who have been killed by illegal aliens.” Mills spoke to a couple who brought their 4-year-old daughter to the anti-Trump policy gathering. “I cannot imagine a child her age,” said the mom, “being separated from her mom or dad. And not knowing what’s going on.” (©2018 CBS Local Media, a division of CBS Radio Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Wire services contributed to this report.)