Demonstrators decry what they see as threats to the nation’s democratic ideals.
Opponents of President Donald Trump’s administration have taken to the streets in droves across the United States to decry what they say are threats to the nation’s democratic ideals, including deportations of immigrants and mass firings of government workers.
The protests on Saturday ranged from rallies in midtown Manhattan and in front of the White House in Washington, DC, to a demonstration at a Massachusetts commemoration marking the start of the American Revolutionary War 250 years ago.
The protests come just two weeks after similar nationwide protests against the Trump administration drew thousands of participants.
Organisers said they’re protesting against what they view as Trump’s violations of civil rights and the US Constitution, including efforts to deport hundreds of immigrants and scale back the federal government by firing thousands of government workers and in effect shutter entire agencies.
In Manhattan, protesters rallied against continued deportations of immigrants from the steps of the New York Public Library.
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“No fear, no hate, no ICE in our state,” they chanted, referring to US Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Thomas Bassford drove from Maine to Massachusetts to witness the reenactment of the Battles of Lexington and Concord and “the shot heard ’round the world” on April 19, 1775, that heralded the start of the US war of independence from Britain.
The 80-year-old retiree said he believed Americans today are under attack from their own government and need to stand up against it. “This is a very perilous time in America for liberty,” he told The Associated Press news agency, adding: “I wanted the boys [his grandsons] to learn about the origins of this country and that sometimes we have to fight for freedom.”
Elsewhere, protests were planned outside Tesla car dealerships against billionaire Trump adviser Elon Musk and his role in downsizing the federal government while still others organised community-service events, such as food drives, teach-ins and volunteering at local shelters.
Some of the events drew on the spirit of the American Revolutionary War, calling for “no kings” and resistance to tyranny.
Boston resident George Bryant was among those who turned out in Concord. He told The Associated Press he was concerned Trump was creating a “police state” in America as he held up a sign saying, “Trump fascist regime must go now!”
The Trump administration, among other things, has moved to shut down Social Security Administration field offices, cut funding for government health programmes and scale back protections for transgender people.
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In Washington, DC, Bob Fasick said he came out to the rally outside the White House out of concern about threats to constitutionally protected due process rights as well as Social Security and other federal safety-net programmes.
“I cannot sit still knowing that if I don’t do anything and everybody doesn’t do something to change this that the world that we collectively are leaving for the little children, for our neighbours is simply not one that I would want to live in,” said a 76-year-old retired federal employee from Springfield, Virginia.