A large gathering that started out at the Colorado State Capitol to rally against the growing numbers of deportations of people in Colorado and the country illegally became a march down a Denver street on Tuesday evening.
CBS
Hundreds of protesters first gathered peacefully at the Colorado State Capitol at the start of the evening. By 6:15 p.m. they started a march down the middle of Lincoln Street. The march made it temporarily impossible for all lanes of traffic to get through. Another group marched up the same street a little over an hour later.
Patrol cars from the Colorado State Patrol worked to keep ahead of the marchers and block off oncoming traffic.
The protest resulted in service disruptions for RTD. Many bus routes were affected.
Later in the night police blocked marchers from accessing Interstate 25.
The White House has directed Immigrations and Customs Enforcement to step up daily arrests. CBS News reports the goal is to make 3,000 arrests a day nationwide.
Protesters have also taken to the streets in other cities, including Dallas and San Francisco, and Los Angeles is in the midst of a fifth day of protests over federal immigration raids. On Monday evening in California, tensions boiled over following a day of peaceful demonstrations.
President Trump has doubled the number of National Guard troops being sent to patrol the city to 4,000 — a number that Los Angeles city officials say vastly outnumbers the protesters — and has said they will remain there indefinitely.
There were security concerns leading up to Tuesday’s demonstration in Denver, but everything has been peaceful so far. Groups have been protesting ICE for months now, but their message is even louder given the recent events in L.A. In a protest in Aurora on Monday organizers said they want to show solidarity with what’s happening in California.
Organizers say they’re demanding an end to what they call targeted raids in immigrant communities that are tearing families apart.
Some people in Denver called for ICE to be abolished altogether, while others want state and local law enforcement to stop cooperating with federal immigration agents.
Michael Ciaglo / Getty Images 
Many in Colorado held signs and chanted against immigration enforcement. One protester said she knows the pain of deportation personally.
“My dad was deported a couple years back and I know how it feels to have family separated and struggle with that. And I don’t want anybody else to go through that. Because I know my mom suffered. I suffered, and it’s really traumatic and I don’t want anyone to feel that way,” she said.
Denver police, Colorado State Patrol, and other agencies say they’re monitoring the protest and are ready to respond if necessary.
Source link
