Sacramento<\/a> on Friday, calling for Immigration and Customs Enforcement to be kept \u201cout of everywhere\u201d as they rallied in solidarity with an economic shutdown taking place in Minnesota.<\/p>\nThe group moved from Cesar Chavez Plaza to Downtown Commons, then marched to the John Moss Federal Building before heading back to Cesar Chavez Plaza. Protesters said the demonstration was held in support of immigrants and in opposition to ICE.<\/p>\n
About 400 people gathered at Cesar Chavez Plaza, circling the center of the park and chanting as a band played nearby. Robert Meagher, a retired pediatrician who joined the protest, compared ICE agents to thugs.<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause they have no political police training, they are masked, they can do anything they feel like, and they don\u2019t follow any laws,” said Meagher.<\/p>\n
Organizers said the Sacramento rally was meant to show solidarity with hundreds of Minnesota businesses expected to close Friday as part of an economic shutdown protesting ICE. More than 700 businesses were expected to participate in the strike, which was organized by local faith leaders and unions. Participants were urged to avoid shopping and, if possible, stay home from work.<\/p>\n
Even from more than a thousand miles away, Sacramento protesters said they feel impacted by ICE actions.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m personally affected because I\u2019m an American citizen, and I\u2019m seeing how American citizens are being harassed. Today\u2019s Minneapolis, tomorrow it could be Sacramento, it could be any city,” said Jesus.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Meagher said he blames Congress for allowing President Trump\u2019s administration to move forward with increased immigration enforcement.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s hard to see our democracy turning into a dictatorship. It\u2019s one of the most distressing things that\u2019s ever happened in my life in the past 80 years,” said Meagher.\u00a0<\/p>\n
After chanting for about an hour and a half at the plaza, protesters marched through downtown, traveling from I Street to DOCO before walking behind the John Moss Federal Building.<\/p>\n
At the federal building, Brent and Eva Schwartz said they brought their children to the rally out of fear of ICE activity.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m scared ICE will end up at my kids\u2019 school. I love my kids. The idea that they would, they\u2019re invading \u2014 this is scary,” said Eva.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The family said they hope changes are made, citing concerns about people being harmed during ICE actions.<\/p>\n
WATCH MORE ON ABC10 | Sacramento protesters back Minnesota strike against ICE<\/a><\/p>\n ABC10: Watch, Download, Read<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cIt\u2019s hard to see our democracy turning into a dictatorship. It\u2019s one of the most distressing things that\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":147649,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[121,123,122],"class_list":{"0":"post-147648","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sacramento","8":"tag-sacramento","9":"tag-sacramento-headlines","10":"tag-sacramento-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147648","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=147648"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147648\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/147649"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=147648"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=147648"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=147648"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}