Activists in Columbus will be holding a rally at the Ohio Statehouse on Saturday morning, in conjunction with over 600 events across the country protesting the Trump administration’s immigration policies.
The Columbus event – which is organized by the liberal group MoveOn – is expected to draw hundreds of attendees to demand the reunification of families separated at the southern border. Protesters also call for the end of “zero tolerance” prosecution and family detention practices.
Organizers in Dayton, Cincinnati, Toledo, Youngstown, Cleveland, and other Ohio cities are hosting their own Families Belong Together protests on June 30. The Columbus rally is co-sponsored by the Council on American-Islamic Relations, Yes We Can Columbus, and a number of advocacy groups.
Despite President Trump’s recent executive order to stop his administration’s policy, some 2,000 children remain separated. A judge recently ordered those be returned to their families within 30 days.
Jessica McCarty-Kern, who helped organize a rally in Oxford told WVXU she wants to bring concerned community members together to express solidarity.
"This whole situation is very troubling, as a mom," she says. "We say we're a country that stands behind family values and this [policy] isn't showing that. I'd really like to show family values and treat people as we say we do, which is that everyone is created equally."
The Columbus rally begins at 10 a.m. on June 30 at the west plaza of the Ohio Statehouse.
