As Donald J. Trump was being sworn into office as the 47th president of the United States, hundreds of protesters gathered in Washington Square Park, braving single-digit freezing temperatures, to express their outrage at the incoming administration’s anti-immigrant agenda.
Despite the low turnout, among the crowd was a new generation of activists who were determined to keep the opposition to Trump alive.
At the park was Lizeth, an 18-year-old Ecuadorian student, who felt compelled to participate in the demonstration. Holding a sign that said “No worker is illegal,” Lizeth stood up for the rights of her immigrant parents who she feared could be deported.
“I don’t like the way that on [Trump’s] first day, he wants to do the largest mass deportation in history, and I don’t agree with that,” she told Documented. “Both of my parents are immigrants so that’s the fear that I have that they might get taken away from me, which I hope doesn’t happen because I won’t go back with them.”
As she marched with her sign, a heckler, waving an Israeli flag, shouted “U.S.A” from a window of a surrounding highrise. Lizbeth looked up and stuck up her middle finger.
Many of the protesters who marched up Sixth Avenue toward Times Square proudly waved Palestinian and Puerto Rican flags as they chanted “el pueblo unido jamas sera vencido” (The people united won’t be defeated) and “Power to the people, no one is illegal.”
Also among the crowd gathered in the park were about a dozen students from the Hunter College Committee to Defend Immigrants who held signs reading “CUNY Students Say ICE Out of New York.”
The protest, organized by The Party for Socialism and Liberation and co-sponsored by organizations such as the Palestinian Youth Movement and CODEPINK, was fairly small and lacked the strength of the wave of Trump opposition protests that spontaneously erupted across the city eight years ago.
Today’s protest, with its low turnout, was a stark reminder of how normalized MAGA culture has become even among immigrant communities, despite the administration’s push to pass anti-immigrant legislation such as the Laken Riley Act. The draconian bill, which passed both chambers of the Republican-controlled Senate, would require the “mandatory detention” of undocumented migrants charged with petty crimes like shoplifting.
Already, within minutes of taking office, Present Trump vowed to sign a plethora of executive orders aimed at halting immigration from the southern border.
Another young participant at the protest was Nas Issa, a member of the Palestinian Youth Movement NYC-Chapter. When asked about why she was attending the protest, she stressed the importance of finding the intersections between a variety of issues such as the genocide in Gaza and immigration.
“So we’re here to fight back against all of those issues ranging from mass deportations to securing abortion rights to fighting for a true arms embargo on Israel due to its genocide in Gaza.”
Protester Rachel Muse, 29, also reiterated the need for community members to stand in solidarity with immigrants. She held a sign that read “Defend Immigrant Families” painted in the red, black, and green colors of the Palestinian flag.
“Immigrants built this city, and they built this country, and I’m really scared of what’s coming with the ICE raids. And within my immediate community and the mutual aid groups I’m a part of, we’re preparing for that. But I think it’s time that everyone needs to show up for each other,” she said.
