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Hundreds Rally In Kansas City To 'Protect Immigrant Families,' Many Protesting For First Time

Andrea Tudhope
/
KCUR 89.3
Hundreds of people gathered Sunday at Mill Creek Park in midtown Kansas City to protest family separation at U.S. borders.

Hundreds of people protested the separation of immigrant families at a rally Sunday afternoon at Kansas City's Mill Creek Park.

"This is my very, very first rally ever," Fabiola Cruz told the crowd.

Cruz was among dozens who raised their hands indicating they were protesting for the first time. She came to the front after organizers from the immigrant advocacy group Cosecha KC invited protesters to share their personal stories. Cruz — who came to the U.S. from Tijuana, Mexico, when she was 2 years old — said she felt compelled to speak up.

Credit Andrea Tudhope / KCUR 89.3
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KCUR 89.3
Fabiola Cruz volunteered to share her personal story with the crowd Sunday. Cruz said her brother-in-law was deported in January, and now her sister is caring for their month-old baby alone.

"My sister served as a Marine and she's not even able to have her husband here," Cruz told the crowd. 

Cruz and her sister are citizens now, but she said her brother-in-law was deported in January to Mexico. 

"They have a baby. This family separation policy is hurting our families. Not just my sister's family, everybody's family," Cruz said.

Facing widespread criticism, President Trump signed an executive order last week to end the practice of separating families at U.S. borders and instead detain parents and children together indefinitely.

Credit Andrea Tudhope / KCUR 89.3
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KCUR 89.3
Toward the end of the rally, protesters lined each side of Emanuel Cleaver II Boulevard near the Country Club Plaza. Passers-by honked their horns to cheers from the protesters.

But organizers with Cosecha KC, the KS/MO DREAM Alliance and Advocates for Immigrant Rights and Reconciliation pushed ahead with rallies planned for the weekend to call attention to the "border crisis," and put pressure on the Trump administration to keep families out of detention altogether.

"The proposed family detention centers for parents and children are not a solution. We will not stand by and let this administration commit these crimes," said Cosecha KC leader Raiza Guevara in a written statement.

Credit Andrea Tudhope / KCUR 89.3
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KCUR 89.3
Teresa Calhoun, who came to the U.S. from Mexico, said she can't imagine being separated from her own children.

Teresa Calhoun was another first-time protester at Sunday's rally. Calhoun came to the U.S. from Tabasco, Mexico. With her 7-month-old daughter Araza on her hip, she said she couldn't even imagine what parents have been going through at the border.  

Even with Trump's order, she and others at the rally said they were concerned over how the thousands of children already separated from their parents will be reunited with them.

"America, it's free," Calhoun said. "I want these practices to stop."

Andrea Tudhope is a reporter for KCUR 89.3. Email her at andreat@kcur.org, and follow her on Twitter @_tudhope.

Andrea Tudhope is an award-winning multimedia journalist based in Kansas City, Missouri. She is currently coordinating producer for America Amplified, a national public media community engagement initiative funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. 
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