Voto Latino takes lawmakers, leaders, celebrities to protest in Tornillo

Politicians, celebrities and protesters made their way to Tornillo Sunday morning in another protest against family separation following days of outrage.

One week after a Father’s Day protest outside the Tornillo port of entry, hundreds still flocked to the area to listen to speakers calling against the separation of families at the border.
Rally goers coming from more than just the borderland.

“People from Alaska are here, from Pennsylvania are here and Maine are here,” commented one of the speakers.

Politicians like former Housing Secretary Julian Castro hoping to appeal to a wider audience.

“At this point this issue is no longer an issue of conservatives or liberals, or republicans and democrats, or even an issue or immigration,” Castro said.

Meanwhile, legislators shared their plans to work against the effect of families being separated by President Trump’s administration.

“We’re gonna make sure that no policy, no legislative work in Congress allows for the separation of families ever again,” said Michelle Lujan (D-Albuquerque).

“Congress must immediately have an independent body that oversees and is looking at what’s happening not just to the children, but to every detainee who has been incarcerated in this country.”

The planned march was canceled after speeches went on for too long.

Even Hollywood made it to Tornillo, Vincent D’Onofrio and Lena Dunham were in the crowd while director Rob Reiner pushed for rally goers to hit the polls this year.

“We’re gonna come out in November, we’re all gonna be there, and we’re gonna stop this inhumane, disgraceful policy,” Reiner said.

As of last Wednesday, 2,053 minors who were separated at the border were being cared for in Health And Human Services-funded facilities, according to a fact sheet on “zero-tolerance prosecution and family reunification” the Department of Homeland Security released Saturday.

Trump administration officials say the U.S. government knows the location of all children in its custody after separating them from their families at the border and is working to reunite them.

The fact sheet doesn’t state how long it might take to reunite families. The Port Isabel Service Processing Center in Texas has been set up as the staging ground for the families to be reunited prior to deportation.

U.S. Customs and Border Patrol said it had reunited 522 children and that some were never taken into custody by Health and Human Services because their parents’ criminal cases were processed too quickly.