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Mass Mobilization Planned for June 30 to Protest Trump's Cruel Separation of Families

More than 100 protests across the country are planned for Saturday, June 30, with many Americans eager to speak out against President Donald Trump's immigration policy which has separated thousands of children from their parents. (Photo: @ajplus/Twitter)

Mass Mobilization Planned for June 30 to Protest Trump's Cruel Separation of Families

"Every day, the administration is choosing to separate children from their families...They're not only bragging about it, they're using it to advance their political agenda."

As outrage spreads over the Trump administration's forcible separation of families at the U.S.-Mexico border, human rights groups are calling on Americans to attend mass protests on Saturday, June 30 to speak out against President Donald Trump's immigration policy and the administration's repeated lies about its practices.

On MSNBC's "All In with Chris Hayes" on Monday night, Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) spoke about the planned demonstration, which is expected to include more than 100 actions in cities and towns across the country as well as a march on Washington, D.C. Just12hours after Jayapal's appearance on MSNBC, more than 4,000 Americans had pledged to demonstrate on June 30.

"We see the outrage, and we see that this has to be taken right to Donald Trump to stop the family separation," Jayapal said. "Nobody believes that there is any legislative reason, any policy reason, and certainly no moral reason to be separating these kids. This is not a political issue; this is about what's right or wrong."

Groups involved in planning the demonstrations include the ACLU, the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, MoveOn, and the National Domestic Workers Alliance.

Trump critics have noted that based on the president's own statements on social media, in which he's provided a list of immigration policy demands that Congress must meet in order to end the practice of separating families, the administration is blatantly using children as pawns in order to achieve its goals of building a border wall and moving to a "merit-based" immigration system.

"Every day, the administration is choosing to separate children from their families. And it's within their power to change that. But they're not only bragging about it, they're using it to advance their political agenda," said Ai-jen Poo, director of the National Domestic Workers Alliance. "This is not only about the children who are in detention, but also about the children who are watching. As parents, we need to do something about this."

On Twitter, Ben Wikler of MoveOn explained how planning the protests two weeks in advance could be more effective than holding them in the midst of Tuesday's outcry over Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen's press conference, in which she vehemently defended family separation.

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