Madonna Walsh, from LaGrange, Illinois, joined today’s No Kings protest in downtown Chicago, carrying a poster that compared immigration deportations to concentration camps.
“The rise of authoritarianism today is a repeat of what happened in the 1930s in Nazi Germany, and I don’t want it to happen here,” she said. “I did some research on what Hitler was doing in the 1930s and compared it to what Trump has been doing in office in January and the similarities are mind-blowing.”
Chicago activist Andy Thayer. NBC News
Andy Thayer, an activist handing out signs that said “ICE OUT!” told NBC News, “Most Chicagoans don’t want ICE here.”
“I’m angry — what’s happening to my neighbors, my husband is second-generation Latinx. I fear for my neighbors. If you don’t think it’ll affect you, but at some point or another, they will get around you. They are arresting citizens,” Thayer sid.
Rachel Mason, left, and her daughter with their neighbor Anton Ford. NBC News
Rachel Mason and her daughter joined their neighbor Anton Ford to attend today’s event. They said they were motivated to join because “ICE is in our neighborhood.”
“Children are afraid to go outside because ICE is around. It’s crazy — SUVs no license plates outside of schools,” they said.
Chicago resident Yabira. NBC News
A teacher named Yabira, who declined to share her last name, joined the protest to let her students know she supports them. She became teary-eyed as she said she prays for her father, a construction worker, to come home every night.