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Hundreds Rally In Kansas City To 'Protect Immigrant Families,' Many Protesting For First Time

Hundreds of people gathered Sunday at Mill Creek Park in midtown Kansas City to protest family separation at U.S. borders.
Andrea Tudhope
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KCUR 89.3
Hundreds of people gathered Sunday at Mill Creek Park in midtown Kansas City to protest family separation at U.S. borders.

Hundreds of people protested the separation of immigrant families at a rally Sunday afternoon at Kansas City's Mill Creek Park.

"This is my very, very first rally ever," Fabiola Cruz told the crowd.

Cruz was among dozens who raised their hands indicating they were protesting for the first time. She came to the front after organizers from the immigrant advocacy group Cosecha KC invited protesters to share their personal stories. Cruz — who came to the U.S. from Tijuana, Mexico, when she was 2 years old — said she felt compelled to speak up.

Fabiola Cruz volunteered to share her personal story with the crowd Sunday. Cruz said her brother-in-law was deported in January, and now her sister is caring for their month-old baby alone.
Credit Andrea Tudhope / KCUR 89.3
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KCUR 89.3
Fabiola Cruz volunteered to share her personal story with the crowd Sunday. Cruz said her brother-in-law was deported in January, and now her sister is caring for their month-old baby alone.

"My sister served as a Marine and she's not even able to have her husband here," Cruz told the crowd. 

Cruz and her sister are citizens now, but she said her brother-in-law was deported in January to Mexico. 

"They have a baby. This family separation policy is hurting our families. Not just my sister's family, everybody's family," Cruz said.

Facing widespread criticism, President Trump signed an executive order last week to end the practice of separating families at U.S. borders and instead detain parents and children together indefinitely.

Toward the end of the rally, protesters lined each side of Emanuel Cleaver II Boulevard near the Country Club Plaza. Passers-by honked their horns to cheers from the protesters.
Credit Andrea Tudhope / KCUR 89.3
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KCUR 89.3
Toward the end of the rally, protesters lined each side of Emanuel Cleaver II Boulevard near the Country Club Plaza. Passers-by honked their horns to cheers from the protesters.

But organizers with Cosecha KC, the KS/MO DREAM Alliance and Advocates for Immigrant Rights and Reconciliation pushed ahead with rallies planned for the weekend to call attention to the "border crisis," and put pressure on the Trump administration to keep families out of detention altogether.

"The proposed family detention centers for parents and children are not a solution. We will not stand by and let this administration commit these crimes," said Cosecha KC leader Raiza Guevara in a written statement.

Teresa Calhoun, who came to the U.S. from Mexico, said she can't imagine being separated from her own children.
Credit Andrea Tudhope / KCUR 89.3
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KCUR 89.3
Teresa Calhoun, who came to the U.S. from Mexico, said she can't imagine being separated from her own children.

Teresa Calhoun was another first-time protester at Sunday's rally. Calhoun came to the U.S. from Tabasco, Mexico. With her 7-month-old daughter Araza on her hip, she said she couldn't even imagine what parents have been going through at the border.  

Even with Trump's order, she and others at the rally said they were concerned over how the thousands of children already separated from their parents will be reunited with them.

"America, it's free," Calhoun said. "I want these practices to stop."

Andrea Tudhope is a reporter for KCUR 89.3. Email her at andreat@kcur.org, and follow her on Twitter @_tudhope.

Copyright 2021 KCUR 89.3. To see more, visit KCUR 89.3.

Andrea Tudhope is a freelance reporter for KCUR, and an associate producer for Central Standard. She covers everything from sexual assault and homicide, to domestic violence and race relations. In 2012, Andrea spent a year editing, conducting interviews and analyzing data for the Colorado Springs Gazette series "Other Than Honorable," which exposed widespread mistreatment of wounded combat veterans. The series, written by investigative reporter Dave Philipps, won a Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting in 2014. Since graduating from Colorado College in 2013 with a degree in Comparative Literature and Philosophy, her work has appeared in The Huffington Post and The Colorado Independent. She is currently working on a book based on field research and interviews she conducted in Dublin, Ireland in 2012.