Dallas

North Texas Woman Heading to DC for Day of Action Protest

Alia Salem will leave Dallas Wednesday morning for Washington, D.C. to join other women for a Day of Action to protest U.S. Immigration policy that separated families before President Trump signed an executive order to stop it.

"What else is there left to do," Salem asked. "Until all those families are reunited and justice is actually taking place, we can't relent on the pressure we need to put on Washington."

Salem said she'll be one of an estimated 1,000 women planning civil disobedience in D.C. The action is being organized by the same group as the Women's March.

Last weekend, Salem was part of a Dallas contingent that took a bus to McAllen to protest outside a detention center. She took photos of children on a bus, their hands pressed to the windows. 

"Just as a human being, I felt called to go down there and at least bear witness to what was happening," Salem explained. 

The community impacted at the border is not her own. Salem is Muslim. She planned to attend a rally protesting the President's travel ban Tuesday night. She said though the borders are different, the issues are the same.

"So people have to understand that all of these issues are intertwined. When we start to work on what we see as other people's issues, we are actually working on our own issues," Salem said. "We have to take steps to make change, and sometimes that's really dramatic steps."

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