{"id":180090,"date":"2026-03-30T20:58:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-30T20:58:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/180090\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T20:58:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-30T20:58:08","slug":"hundreds-rally-in-the-bronx-for-no-kings-day-bronx-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/180090\/","title":{"rendered":"Hundreds Rally in the Bronx for No Kings Day \u2013 Bronx Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Protestors holding signs that say \u201cNo Crown for the Orange Clown\u201d and \u201cThank You Minneapolis For Your Courage.\u201d<\/p>\n

Photo by Carol Chen.<\/p>\n

On early afternoon Saturday at Lou Gehrig Plaza in the South Bronx, hundreds of residents packed the plaza for the borough\u2019s No Kings rally, bundled up against the cold, homemade signs held high. \u201cNo Crown for the Clown,\u201d read one. \u201cNo War, No ICE, No Kings,\u201d read another.<\/p>\n

A third, held by a woman near the front: \u201cThank You Minneapolis for Your Courage.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

According to the No Kings Coalition<\/a>, more than 8 million people turned out nationwide, which they called the largest single-day protest in American history. In the Bronx, the rally was organized by a coalition of seven local groups including Northwest Bronx Indivisible<\/a>, Working Families Power<\/a> and Bend the Arc<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The demonstrations were a response to what organizers describe as the consolidation of executive power, the weaponization of ICE and deep cuts to Social Security, Medicaid and public education. In the Bronx, ICE activity has rattled neighborhoods across the borough for months and parents have told elected officials they are afraid to send their kids to school.<\/p>\n

\"\"Elected officials attended the rally on Saturday. From left to right: Pierina Sanchez, Althea Stevens, Vanessa Gibson, Emerita Torres. Photo by Carol Chen.<\/p>\n

Before the elected officials took the stage, the Bronx Singing Resistance choir led the crowd in song. \u201cOye mi gente traimos,\u201d they sang, voices in unison, \u201crise up my people, my eagle, my condors, no human beings will be illegal.\u201d <\/p>\n

Later came a civil rights standard reworded for the moment: \u201cAin\u2019t gonna let no fascism turn me around.\u201d People who had been standing quietly with their signs began to sway. <\/p>\n

Between songs, the plaza erupted into call and response. \u201cWhose democracy?\u201d someone called out. \u201cOur democracy!\u201d the crowd roared back.<\/p>\n

Bronx Borough President Vanessa Gibson opened the protest by naming the case of Dylan Contreras<\/a>, a young Bronx resident who had spent 10 months in ICE custody before being released weeks earlier. \u201cWe reject ICE terrorizing our neighborhoods, disrupting our families and snatching children out of schools,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

City Councilmember Pierina Sanchez, whose district is over 98% people of color, was more blunt. \u201cICE is not coming,\u201d she told the plaza. \u201cICE is here today.\u201d<\/p>\n

The fear is concrete for many residents in the crowd. Becky Green, a Pelham Bay resident, described a coworker who had his legal immigration status revoked by executive order, showed up as required to an immigration hearing and was detained. He is now held in Louisiana, far from his family. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt makes me sick that they think this is what they can do,\u201d Green said. Asked whether rallying would lead to change, she paused. \u201cI don\u2019t know. Who knows? But what\u2019s the alternative?\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Protestors gathered at the No Kings Rally on Lou Gehrig Plaza on Saturday, many holding signs. Photo by Carol Chen.<\/p>\n

For the community organizers who took the stage, the protest was a way to speak out against a federal administration that has undermined their work in the community. Leslie Vasquez, an environmental justice organizer with The Point<\/a>, has spent years fighting for cleaner air in a borough with some of the highest asthma rates in the city. <\/p>\n

She sees the current federal administration as a direct threat to that work. \u201cThe Bronx is sick and tired of being sick and tired,\u201d Vasquez told the crowd. \u201cWe refuse to let them spend our tax dollars on things that will continue to negatively impact our community.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Edwin Santana of the Freedom Agenda<\/a>, which organizes around mass incarceration and has fought to keep ICE out of Rikers Island, contrasted between how the justice system treats the powerful and how it treats everyone else in an interview with the Bronx Times. <\/p>\n

\u201cTrump has been accused of many crimes and has not settled any of them,\u201d Santana said. \u201cBut if it was me, or the Black and brown person here in the city, we would have definitely landed on Rikers Island.\u201d<\/p>\n

Assemblymember Emerita Torres, a former U.S. diplomat who served at the United Nations, criticized Trump\u2019s foreign policy\u2019s impact on the Bronx. \u201cWhen we slap tariffs on allies, prices go up here in the Bronx, at the grocery store, at the gas station,\u201d she said to a roaring crowd. \u201cTrade policy has been treated like a reality show with Donald Trump, not a strategy for our economy.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The coalition pledged to keep mobilizing through what one organizer called \u201cthe next 2 years and 9 months of the administration.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

For Green, still working to get her coworker released from detention in Louisiana, the question of whether any of it would matter was beside the point. \u201cIt feels overwhelming. It feels like you\u2019re alone,\u201d she said. \u201cBut you\u2019re not. And I\u2019d rather be doing this than nothing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Carol Chen is a student at the\u00a0Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism. For more coverage, subscribe to our\u00a0newsletter<\/a>\u00a0and follow us on\u00a0Twitter<\/a>,\u00a0Facebook<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Instagram<\/a>!<\/p>\n

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