(Updated 2/16/25) Actions across the country have popped up protesting President Donald Trump’s mass deportation plan. In DeKalb, a march was held Sunday.
Some folks carried signs that read “Education and not deportation,” during the march along Lincoln Highway.
Cars passing by beeped their horns as marchers cheered and chanted, “The people united will never be defeated.”
Several high school students spoke to the crowd gathered at the end of the march.
“We're simply looking to live our lives without fear, with the worry that I might get deported or rejected,” said one of the speakers.
This action was one of many held across the country as the Trump Administration and Republicans in Congress seek to make cuts in the federal budget to make way for funding on the deportation crackdown.
By way of executive order, President Donald Trump has sought to expand the number of people who face deportation by eliminating birthright citizenship. That order is being held up in the courts. Meanwhile, Trump lifted a ban on deportation raids from happening in churches, school and health facilities.
Prior to Sunday's march, some of the people organizing this event spoke with WNIJ about why they feel the action in necessary:
Ana
She's raising children with mixed legal status. Her two youngest were born here including her teenage son. Her eldest has been in the U.S. since she was seven years old and like herself has no legal status. She hopes the march elicits community support for families like hers.
"I want DeKalb to hear us, to respect us," she said, "to sleep at home with the benefit of knowing that we don’t have a neighbor against us, to know that the city really backs us.”
Veronica
For nearly 20 years Veronica has been living and working in DeKalb with no legal status. She’s raised her American-born son in the U.S. It’s for her 14-year-old that she’s most concerned as she thinks about the possibility of being deported under President Donald Trump’s mass deportation plan.
“I posed him a question about two weeks ago - ‘What would happen if I get deported, if I get sent back?’" she said. "He says that won’t happen. I said, ‘Respond to my question- What would you do? What would you do?’ He didn’t know how to respond to my question. And that worries me because he wouldn’t know how to fend for himself if he’s left alone. And that has me a bit melancholic.”
Laura
She’s a speech therapist in DeKalb. Laura arrived in the U.S when she was a teenager. She has DACA status, which allows her to work in the U.S. It provides a temporary shield from deportation. She hopes the march helps to combat the anti-immigrant climate in the country. The march is being organized by individuals, with support of civic and religious groups. She’s working on creating a formal group focused on immigrant rights.
“He's [Pres. Donald Trump] saying that DACA recipients, all of a sudden, we deserve to be here," she said. "But honestly, if my family doesn't deserve to be here then why would I?[The anti-immigrant rhetoric] has incrementally gotten worse and worse and worse, and all of a sudden, we're 'criminals.' And all of a sudden, we're'rapists' and, oh, we're 'bad hombres.' How much hate can one person spread and how much of that can the general public believe? I've been working a lot on the descriptions and the Facebook and, like, our statements to make them official and all this stuff. And we just want humanity.
