‘No Kings’ Returns And Americans Are Angrier Than Ever At Mass Deportation and Rampant Abuses of Power

 “I’m here because of the incredible amount of cruelty that’s going on in the world,” said one rally attendee

Record-breaking “No Kings” events across every single U.S. state and territory this past weekend continued to voice fierce opposition to the Trump administration’s attacks on constitutional freedoms, paychecking-busting policies, and rampant abuses of power, from unjustified war to skyrocketing gas prices to the mass deportation agenda currently ensnaring U.S. citizens and immigrant neighbors alike.

Organizers said that Saturday’s protests – the third iteration of “No Kings” actions so far – attracted more than eight million participants across more than 3,300 events, breaking October’s record of the latest single day political protest in modern American history. For Vermonter Hannah Abrams, her attendance was a matter of affirming the humanity of her neighbors. “I’m here because of the incredible amount of cruelty that’s going on in the world,” she told NPR.

“It’s just cruel conditions for people who are taken by ICE, it’s the cruel way that they’re taken,” she said. “It’s the cruelty of our economy and how we are paying more, even though we’re told that the economy has improved. We’re cruel towards other countries, taking their leaders and deciding those leaders’ fates. I think the people who are in our military are being asked to sacrifice their lives not for freedom, but for money-hungry rulers, and that is cruel.”

See a sampling of these events below.

ALASKA

Americans rallied in roughly two dozen cities across Alaska, including Utqiaġvik, which holds the distinction of being the northernmost cities in the entire U.S. In Juneau, the state’s capital, organizers and attendees called out kitchen table issues plaguing working Americans, including rising food costs, cuts to critical federal programs like Medicare in order to fund tax cuts for billionaires, and ugly mass deportation policies oftentimes based on complete fabrications of its authority.

“ICE’s efforts are a direct attack on workers’ fundamental freedoms to work with dignity, to raise our families without the threat of violence from our government and safely return home to our loved ones at the end of a working day,” Heidi Drygas, executive director of the Alaska State Employees Association AFSCME Local 52, told Alaska Beacon.

CALIFORNIA

In Fresno, demonstrators said they were “protesting the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown for violent tactics, racial profiling and killings of protesters Alex Pretti and Renee Good in Minnesota in January,” The Fresno Bee reported.

“I think it’s important to have a presence and to make people aware of all the things that are going on in our country and all the injustices, especially with ICE, and the impact that it’s having not only on our nation, but our local community and on our children in particular,” attorney Crystal Cabrera told the outlet. Many of the roughly 6,000 community members lined the streets near a Home Depot store. The chain’s locations have been the site of immigration arrests in numerous states:

In San Francisco, one rally attendee was Sandra Wong, the great-granddaughter of Wong Kim Ark, a Chinese American cook whose Supreme Court fight more than 125 years ago affirmed that constitutional principle everyone born in America is an American citizen. Norman Wong, Mr. Ark’s great-grandson, told Reuters that his ancestor “knew he was an American. And he demanded that his citizenship be recognized. He was willing to stand up. Wong Kim Ark didn’t make the rule. He affirmed the rule.”

FLORIDA

GEORGIA

ILLINOIS

In Oak Park, a community member who wished to be identified only as Naomi “said her life’s work had been directly impacted by the president taking office,” Wednesday Journal reported. “A counselor for a domestic violence support organization, she said she’d seen federal funding cuts and fear of deportation make it more difficult for her group to serve people impacted by domestic violence in the area.”

Last summer, the relatives of a woman who was murdered by her abusive partner said that she had been afraid to seek help due to fear that she could be deported, The Marshall Project reported in November. “She was not alone,” the report continued. “At least two other women killed by their intimate partners this summer reportedly did not seek police help because they also feared deportation.” One investigation from the AP in February also found that ICE agents themselves have been accused of physical and sexual abuses.

ICE and CBP’s abuses were top of mind for community members who marched through Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport to further condemn the shooting killings of Silverio Villegas González, Good, and Pretti, as well as to continue to call out the federal government’s wasteful stunt deploying ICE agents to airports instead of just agreeing to pay TSA workers:

MAINE

MARYLAND

MINNESOTA

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MISSOURI

14-year-old Leo was among roughly 1,400 community members that gathered in Columbia, the Missouri Independent reported. His mom, Katie, noted how children have not been immune from the chaos of the administration. One recent from ProPublica has found that mass deportation agents have detained the parents of more than 11,000 U.S. citizen children.

During one Congressional shadow hearing last week, 16-year-old American teen Arnoldo Bazan testified how mass deportation agents brutally detained him while in pursuit of his father. “As he sat in the back of their car, Arnoldo says the agents used racial slurs, calling Arnulfo a ‘border hopper,’ ‘beaner,’ ‘dumbass’ and ‘criminal,’” MS Now reported. “At one point, he recalls an agent calling him a ‘son of an alien.’”

“I believe we should stop misusing ICE to deport innocent civilians,” Leo told the Missouri Independent from Columbia’s rally.

NEW JERSEY

NEW YORK

In New York, community members flooded the streets of all five of New York City’s boroughs. One community member, Shawn Haugen, said she was participating for those who didn’t have the ability to speak without fear. “She was carrying a sign from an undocumented student in the Bronx,” NBC New York reported.

These fears are very real. Just days ago, the first public school student in the city to have been abducted by the administration was released after nearly a year in detention. Dylan Contreras, a student at the English Language Learners and International Support Preparatory Academy (ELLIS) in the Bronx, was detained at a routine immigration court appointment last May despite the fact that he was following the rules, staying out of trouble, and had entered the country legally. He was subsequently sent to the abusive Moshannon Valley Processing Center in Pennsylvania.

Following his release from ICE detention, Contreras used his microphone to urge supporters to advocate for the freedom of men he met while in detention as well. “I still have so many friends inside,” he said. “We have to continue fighting for them.” Dylan’s message of unity resonated on Saturday.

“You feel so alone sometimes,” Haugen continued to NBC New York. “These marches are all about solidarity.”

OHIO

OKLAHOMA

OREGON

TENNESSEE

UTAH

WASHINGTON, D.C.

GLOBAL

Demonstrators also took to the streets overseas, with protests taking place in Italy, France, Spain, Germany, the Netherlands, Greece, Australia, and possibly even in Antarctica. If confirmed, it means rallies were held in all seven continents, in an unprecedented rebuke of disastrous U.S. policies.

The GOP obsession with mass deportation and refusal to break with Trump and de-facto Stephen Miller is especially jarring in contrast to the record attendance and tremendous energy on display throughout the country at No Kings rallies this weekend, reacted Joanna Kuebler, Chief of Programs at America’s Voice.

“Along with demanding the Trump administration and his Congressional supporters reduce inflation, cap high prices and stop foreign wars, the mainstream American consensus also wants to stop the violent, unmasked and out of control federal mass deportation machine and chart an alternative vision to fixing our broken immigration system,” she said. “This means not another dollar for ICE or CBP unless and until real change and accountability are delivered.”

“You would think by now that Trump, Miller, and Speaker Johnson would be ready to listen to the will of the people,” Kuebler continued. “Instead, they will try to message their way out of a moral, economic and political problem of their own making.”