KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Despite the extreme heat, more than 1,000 protesters gathered Saturday at Penn Valley Park in Kansas City, Missouri, hoping to send a message — reunite immigrant families together.
The rally comes nearly two months after the Trump administration implemented its zero-tolerance policy regarding undocumented immigrants at the U.S.-Mexico border, where thousands of children have been separated from their parents.
"The kids that they're separating are kids from people seeking asylum," protester Cassie Woolworth said. "They've already been through hell and back, and they don't need this 'I'm taking your child away.'"
Protester Nicholas Bryant agreed, "These families need to be reunited. These children need their father and their mother. I mean, it's not OK to pull a breastfeeding baby off of a mother's breast."
Father Jonathan Callison joined the protesters to show that what is happening is not aligned with Christians' values.
"God is love — that is one of our most central beliefs as Christians, and it's just absolutely important that we come here to stand for love," Callison said.
This topic hits home for many protesters, including Charmaine Ejelonu and Junnan, who declined to provide a last name. Both women come from immigrant families.
"My family is a family of immigrants," Junnan said. "I'm a first-generation American. It's just really close to my heart."
Ejelonu added, "It saddens be that innocent children are being held captive for literally just living and just being human."
President Trump signed an executive order last week, which halted most of family separations but the protesters are urging the administration and Congress to fix the immigration system.
"We are making a statement as a community of humans," Woolworth said. "This is a human issue, this is a moral issue, this is not something that we can sit by and watch happen."
The protesters said they will keep holding similar events until every child is reunited with their parents.
"There is never, in my opinion, an excuse to separate families who are in need, families who seek us for asylum," Callison said. "I don't think that's the value of our country."
