Plaza rally to protest immigration policy

Protesting Trump’s family separation policy|

In observance of World Refugee Day, and in solidarity with other cities around the world, local activists will gather at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, June 20, in the Plaza to demonstrate in support of immigrant, refugee and asylum-seeking families and against the “Zero Tolerance” policy of the Trump Administration.

This policy calls for the criminal prosecution of every adult entering the United States without paperwork. Criminal prosecution of the adults results in the separation of children from their parents at the U.S. border.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has confirmed that at least 2,000 children have been separated from their parents at the border in the past six weeks alone. The president of the American Academy of Pediatrics, after witnessing the conditions in which these children are being detained, referred to it as “government-sanctioned child abuse” that can cause permanent psychological harm to these children.

Rally organizers say the policy, to intentionally inflict emotional abuse as a deterrent, is a violation of International Law, and in conflict with a 2008 U.S. law that gives special consideration to asylum-seeking families and unaccompanied children.

Sonoma joins other cities throughout the country and around the world by protesting this policy, to demand that the Trump administration immediately stop separating families, and to reunite parents with the more than 2,000 children currently being held in cages and tent encampments along the U.S.-Mexico border.

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