A group of about 100 North Texans are bound for the border Thursday to protest the continued separation of migrant children from their parents.
The protesters organized through social media and left about 2:30 in the morning aboard two buses headed for Brownsville to protest outside a federal courthouse where mass detention hearings are being held.
Last week an official with the Department of Homeland Security confirmed that 500 of the approximately 2,300 children who had been initially separated from their parents at the border had already been reunited. This week a federal judge ruled that the government has 30 days to reunite the remaining children with their parents.
“I believe what is happening at our border is wrong. I believe that family should stay together. I believe that separating a child from a parent is inhumane,” said Seana Saxon, of Richardson, shortly before the group pulled out of the parking lot of St. Luke’s Lutheran Church along W. Belt Line Road in Richardson.
The American Civil Liberties Union paid for the buses, which are scheduled to arrive in Brownsville before 11 a.m. Once there, the group will protest the continued separation of families outside of the courthouse where hearings are going on for many of the people who are accused of crossing the border illegally.
“Take yourself a look in the mirror and think about empathy and compassion for other human beings,” said Norma Garcia Lopez of United Fort Worth, who helped to organize the protest, to those who are not outraged by what they have seen. “Because this is no longer about politics. This is about doing the right thing for each other.”
