National President’s Day protest held in Palm Springs
A rally was held at Palm Springs City Hall Monday as part of a nationwide set of demonstrations against President Donald Trump’s declaration of a national emergency, which allows him to shift funding away from Congress-approved national security initiatives and toward completion of a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.
The local protest was organized by the Courageous Resistance, Palm Springs and other Desert Cities/Indivisible 36, the ACLU, and Moveon.org.
“There is no national emergency,” said DeniAntionette Mazingo, a candidate for state assembly. “(Trump) is doing this to fulfill a promise that he has made, but Mexico is not paying for this. This is gonna come off your back and my back and everybody else’s back. We’re gonna end up paying for this.”
Protestors, with signs in hand, were glad to make their voices heard.
“We’re getting our feelings out and we have the free speech to say what we feel and we’re talking about the truth,” said demonstrator Diane Winn.
Many called the declaration unconstitutional.
“This declaration is not democracy. This is a far overreach by the president,” said Joy Silver, co-founder of Courageous Resistance. “Members of his own party in the Senate and in the House all have voted not to go forward with funding for what he considers border security.”
One valley Republican group said they are pushing border security by any means necessary.
“We just want to be safe,” said Joy Miedecke, president of the East Valley Republican Women coalition. “That’s all. We want our children to be safe. … I feel bad for these (protestors) because they’re just heading the wrong way.”
Courageous Resistance works to make change in the following ways, according to information sent to News Channel 3 about today’s rally:
Advocating For Economic Justice Single payer health care and fair housing Advocating For Human Rights- Protecting vulnerable communities like LGBTQ, Immigrants, the elderly and homeless. We also advocate for protecting the environment like saving the Salton Sea. Holding Corporate And Political Figures Accountable- We address issues of legislation like gun laws, and hold rallies to protest unconstitutional actions taken by the federal government.
Speakers for the event included Ginny Foat, Joy Silver, Phil Drucker, Deniantoinette Mazingo, and Robert Mueller.
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The president made the declaration Friday during a news conference in the White House Rose Garden after threatening to do so for weeks to stop “an invasion of our country with drugs, with human traffickers, with all types of criminals and gangs.”
Today’s demonstrations, spearheaded by MoveOn.org, include 260 gatherings of activists in 47 states “to protest Donald Trump’s illegal fake emergency and his racist border wall,” organizers said, and link the events to the Presidents Day national holiday.
You can reach Jake on Twitter, Facebook or email him at jake.ingrassia@kesq.com.
