A bunch of Quakers is marching greater than 300 miles — from New York Metropolis to Washington, DC — to exhibit towards the Trump administration‘s therapy of immigrants.
Who’re the Quakers?
Quakers are members of the Religious Society of Friends, a Christian group based in 1650 by George Fox. They imagine in peace, equity, and that everybody has a light-weight from God inside them. They usually protest peacefully to face up for what they imagine is true.Traditionally, Quakers have held peaceable protests to finish conflict and slavery and to help girls’s voting rights. Lately, they’ve sued the Federal authorities for a brand new rule that allowed immigration brokers to arrest folks inside locations of worship, like church buildings or temples. The Quakers imagine these locations must be protected and guarded, and that the federal government mustn’t make arrests at homes of worship.The Quakers are marching to point out solidarity with migrants and different teams that US President Donald Trump’s administration is concentrating on. They imagine that immigrants are being unfairly focused. Jess Hobbs Pifer, a 25-year-old Quaker and march organiser, mentioned, “It feels actually formidable to be up towards such essential and enormous and in some methods existential threats.”“I simply must put one foot in entrance of the opposite to maneuver in direction of one thing higher, one thing extra true to what Quakers earlier than us noticed for this nation and what folks noticed for the American Experiment, the American dream,” she added.Beginning their stroll at a Quaker assembly home in Flushing, New York, they’re planning to stroll by New York, New Jersey, Maryland and Pennsylvania to the US Capitol in Washington, DC. After their arrival, they may ship a replica of the Flushing Remonstrance- a Seventeenth-century doc that known as for spiritual freedom and opposed a ban on Quaker worship.Quakers and Trump’s Insurance policies:Earlier this 12 months, 5 Quaker teams sued the Trump administration for permitting immigration officers to arrest folks in church buildings. They have been later joined by the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship and a Sikh temple. Following that, greater than two-dozen Christian and Jewish teams filed an identical lawsuit, however a federal decide dominated towards them.In the course of the presidential marketing campaign, Trump asserted that immigrants are an existential menace to America. Immigration, each legally and illegally, has surged throughout former US President Joe Biden’s administration. After returning to the White Home, Trump began taking strict actions towards immigrants. He used his presidential powers extensively. Regardless of efforts by federal judges to restrict his authority, he has continued to push it ahead.One of many marchers, Ross Brubeck, mentioned, “Immigrants are those experiencing probably the most acute persecution in the USA.” He wished to ship a message to Trump: “The ability shouldn’t be his to make.”