Five days after Donald Trump was sworn in as the 47th president of the United States, hundreds gathered in downtown Des Moines to protest the president and “defend immigrant families,” as one event pamphlet stated.
Organized by the Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL), the group stood in the plaza outside the Iowa State Capitol on Saturday to express concern about Trump’s week-one policy changes and executive orders, with an emphasis on condemning his decision to close the U.S.-Mexico border and deport millions of immigrants from the country.
Holding homemade signs and yelling chants, attendees heard from and engaged with various speakers from the PSL. Organizers called on citizens and lawmakers to take a stand against Trump’s policies.
Some chants at the event included:
- “Money for jobs and education, not for ICE and deportation.”
- “Money for farms and education, not for ICE and deportation.”
- “Up up with liberation, down down with deportation.”
- “Donald Trump can’t you hear, immigrants are welcome here.”
After hearing from several speakers, the group marched up from the plaza to stand directly in front of the Capitol. After the conclusion, several attendees decided to march to the doors of the Capitol and were met by an Iowa State Trooper standing guard. After a short interaction, attendees were led away from the doors by PSL organizers.
Kanai Johnson, an organizer with the PSL, said she could tell they were angry.
“They want change and they’re going to fight for it,” Johnson said. “The way to do it is to be organized. Unorganized efforts are always crushed by the state.”
Johnson also said PSL “will be back” and plans to hold more demonstrations in the near future.
Claire Mcgohan, an attendee of the demonstration, said she attended because she “can’t stand by and do nothing.”
“My friends, my family, my peers, my whole community is affected by it and a lot of people don’t know they’re going to be affected by it until it’s too late,” Mcgohan said. “We can’t just not do anything.”
Paulina Ocegueda, the youth coordinator for the Ottumwa chapter of the League of United Latin American Citizens of Iowa (LULAC) said she was in attendance to “represent [her] parents and all the immigrants here in the United States.”
According to LULAC’s website, its mission is “to advance the economic condition, educational attainment, political influence, housing, health and civil rights of the Hispanic population of the United States.”
In response to Trump’s immigration policies, agents from the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) have conducted over 1,000 arrests across the country, including one arrest outside the Polk County Courthouse on Thursday. Ocegueda shared how LULAC has responded to this news.
“I make sure that we inform everybody in the Ottumwa community to see if maybe that could be a possible thing where [ICE] stops by,” Ocegueda said. “Just being prepared and making a plan and talking to our police departments…our sheriff department to see what steps we have to do as a community to protect our immigrants and refugees in Ottumwa.”
Immigration in Iowa
On Friday, a federal appeals court sided with the Biden administration’s Justice Department and kept a temporary block on an Iowa law stating those who are in the U.S. illegally have committed a crime in the state of Iowa. If lifted, state and local officials will have the authority to arrest and charge people who have outstanding deportation orders or those who have been removed from or denied entry to the U.S.
Ocegueda said the immigrants she is currently working with “are scared to be sent back home with no resources or no money.”
Along with messages of defiance against Trump, attendees also spoke against Gov. Kim Reynolds and called for her removal.
“We’re not gonna take it,” Johnson said. “You can enact the laws and we are gonna push back.”
