Solidarity campaign mobilizes as thousands of children like Liam Ramos taken amid Trump’s immigration crackdown
O
n 28 January, hundreds of protesters gathered near the Dilley immigration processing center in south Texas, where hundreds of children are being held. Days earlier, immigration lawyer Eric Lee filmed a video of detainees screaming and chanting “libertad,” or “freedom.”
Soon after, solidarity events arose in the state. “Community members saw the children and families crying out [and] having their own protests from within and said to everybody: we need to show up there too,” said Rev Erin Walter, executive director of the Texas Unitarian Universalist Justice Ministry.
Locally, more than 30 organizations, including Walter’s church, mobilized over the course of three days to amplify the voices of the people inside, with many organizers calling for an end to family detention altogether. Since Donald Trump took office, the daily number of children in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention has grown sixfold. At least 3,800 people under the age of 18 have been booked into custody during that time.
