BY TEQUILA MINSKY | A rally to protest the Trump administration’s attacks on immigrants, refugees, and asylum seekers took place in Battery Park on Saturday as visitors to Ellis Island queued outside of Castle Clinton. Advocates with The New York Immigration Coalition addressed how the Trump administration has been separating families at the U.S.-Mexico border. The rally’s proximity to the Statue of Liberty drove home their messages that reflected poet Emma Lazarus’ words in the statue’s inscribed sonnet “The New Colossus.” Members and supporters of the immigrant rights, refugee centers, justice and advocacy groups —32BJ SEIU, African Communities Together, Chinese American Planning Council, Immigrant Defense Project, New Sanctuary Coalition, S.T.R.O.N.G. Youth, Centro Corazon de Maria, , Central American Refugee Center and others — called on the Trump administration to close the camps, respect asylum laws, and treat all humans with the dignity they deserve. At one point, the rally’s speaker addressed both the assembly and those in line for the Statue of Liberty, asking how many of them were immigrants and how many had parents and grandparents who are immigrants. More and more hands were raised.
