Hundreds of people demonstrated in Macomb on Saturday as part of the national No Kings rally.
Noel Bishop drove nearly an hour from Nauvoo, where no rally was scheduled. She’s angry about the Trump administration’s immigration policy.
“On their own they suspended habeas corpus. They’ve decided that we’re just going to do whatever we want no matter what. We’re going to go ahead and disobey every single federal judge out there,” she said.
Bishop said the Trump administration is treating immigrants inhumanely and terrorizing people.
“This has gone too damn far. There needs to be more people upset about this. There needs to be more people raising Cain over this crap. This isn’t fair,” she said.
Demonstrators lined both sides of the highway between Lafayette and Randolph streets in downtown Macomb. Many passing motorists honked in support of the protest.
Jenifer Bower showed up in an inflatable sloth costume.
“I think that it gives you greater visibility during the protest, and it shows the absurdity of today’s administration,” Bower said.
She said she joined the protest because it’s important to make your voice heard about things you don’t agree with, and she does not agree with anything the Trump administration is doing, especially its immigration policy.
“It just seems like white supremacy has come to the surface a lot in this administration. I don’t care for it,” Bower said.
Bower said she’s attended other protests in Macomb, some of which had strong turnouts. But she felt this was the largest turnout she had seen in the community.
Elsewhere in the tri states region, there were No Kings protests in Burlington, Fort Madison, Keokuk, and Galesburg,
Rep. Eric Sorensen, D-Illinois, attended the protest on Galesburg’s public square. He estimated that 1,000 people attended.
NPR reported the protests across the nation were organized by No Kings, which is a network of progressive organizations fighting against the Trump administration’s agenda.
Organizers said about 2,600 No Kings events were planned to be held in nearly every state.
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