Activists gathered in front of the White House on Saturday to make their point against the immigration policies that have led to the separation of families from their children. The president is not in Washington over the weekend, but thousands braved the heat to protest the policy. 

At a Massachusetts rally, Senator Elizabeth Warren called for a swift reunification of children and parents. "This is about children held in cages," she said. "This is about mamas who want their children back."

Sweltering temperatures of 86 degrees Fahrenheit (30 degrees Celsius) did not deter protesters in New York City on Saturday morning.

Shouts of "shame" met the names of people and government agencies responsible for the government's recent attempt to separate children from their parents as they had crossed the US-Mexican border.

Protesters blamed President Donald Trump, Attorney General Jeff Sessions and two government agencies: Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP).

ICE, in particular, has provoked public outrage for its active role in physically separating parents from their children.

There are growing calls among Democrats to defund and disband the agency — a move Trump has vowed to block.

Some 700 demonstrations were planned across the US Saturday.

DW's Michael Knigge met with Krzystof Sadlej from New York City, who had emigrated with his family from Poland when he was a boy and come to the US under the diversity visa program that Trump wants to abolish. "I am an American now and this is not what our country stands for," Sadlej said. "Separating children and families causes irreparable harm."

They are not confined to traditionally liberal bastions such as the big cities of New York and Los Angeles but are also being held in deeply conservative areas such as Appalachia and Wyoming.

At least 50,000 are expected in Washington, DC.

Support surges for immigrants

Demonstrators in Dallas, Texas, gathered outside city hall carrying an array of protest banners. One sign read: "Compassion not cruelty" while another simply said: "Vote."

Another sign warned, "November is coming," referring to the midterm elections, in which all 435 seats in the House of Representatives and a third of the seats in the US Senate are up for grabs.

Protest organizer Michelle Wentz said opposition to Trump's immigration policy seemed to cross political party lines. She called Trump's "zero-tolerance" policy "barbaric and inhumane."

That practice calls for breaking up families upon entry into the US by arresting parents and taking their children away. More than 2,000 children were taken from their parents in May and June, before Trump signed an executive order ending the practice amid a storm of domestic and international protests.

Advocates have been overwhelmed by support for the immigrants, and say the issue is gaining traction among people not usually connected to immigration, according to Jess Morales Rocketto, political director at the National Domestic Workers Alliance. It represents nannies, housekeepers and caregivers, many of whom are immigrants.

"Honestly, I am blown away. I have literally never seen Americans show up for immigrants like this," Morales Rocketto said. "We just kept hearing over and over again, If it was my child, I would want someone to do something."

bik/jm (AP, Reuters, AFP, dpa)

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