MCALLEN, RGV – Rallies and candlelight vigils will take place in Houston, Austin, Dallas and McAllen on Thursday to mark the one-year anniversary of President Trump’s zero-tolerance immigration policy.
The policy led to more than 2,800 migrant children being separated from their parents at the U.S.-Mexico border.
The Family Unity Day of Action is being sponsored by the Mexican American Legislative Caucus, Texas Civil Rights Project (TCRP), RAICES, the Equal Voice Network, La Unión Del Pueblo Entero, and the Workers Defense Project.
The event in McAllen takes place in Archer Park. The rally starts at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday, April 4, 2019, with the vigil taking place an hour later. Supply donations will be accepted for immigrant families and children.
“Participants of the Family Unity Day of Action will oppose the Trump Administration’s immigration policies that are manufacturing a crisis at the southern border,” a statement from the groups said.
“These actions are intentionally causing chaos with mass releases of migrants with no resources and a refusal to end the zero tolerance policy that continues to separate children from their families.”
Last week, thousands of migrants were being denied their right to seek asylum including pregnant women and children who were held under a bridge lined with barbed wire in El Paso, the groups noted.
Among the MALC leaders expected to attend the events are state Reps. Rafael Anchia of Dallas, the chairman, and Mary Gonzalez of El Paso, the vice-chair.
MALC was founded in 1973 in the Texas House of Representatives by a small group of lawmakers of Mexican American heritage for the purpose of strengthening their numbers and better representing a united Latino constituency across the state.
MALC is the oldest and largest Latino legislative caucus in the United States.
Editor’s Note: The main image accompanying the above posting shows Nayeli Zelaya, from El Salvador, resting alongside her two sleeping siblings, at the sports club where Central American migrants traveling with the annual “Stations of the Cross” caravan are camped out in Mexico, April 4, 2018. (AP Photo/Felix Marquez)
