Hundreds of Big Rapids community members joined together on Saturday, Feb. 28, to protest and raise awareness about the actions by the United States Department of Homeland Security and the Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
With many problems arising around the Department of Homeland Security, such as federal agents shooting Alex Pretti, Renne Nicole-Good and Julio Cesar Sosa-Celiain Minneapolis, citizens across the U.S. are expressing their First Amendment right to protest. Since September, DHS Immigration officers have shot 14 people, according to NBC News.
The rally was called “Legal and Humane Immigration Enforcement” and was organized by Indivisible West Central Michigan, which gathered community members from Big Rapids and surrounding communities.
The crowd of protestors was a diverse group, spanning from a few Ferris students to Big Rapids community members, while people spanning from Canadian Lakes to White Cloud came to protest.
Community member Jim Lyon spoke about why it is important for people to get out and protest.
“Young people need to come out and raise their voice,” Lyon said. “We’re not going to be here forever. I am almost 80 years old, and I am not going to live another 80 years. You need to let freedom ring, let people breathe, and have peace on Earth. Governments are for the people before themselves; you don’t make laws for the people behind you; you make laws for the people who are coming, and the young people are the ones who are coming.”
The protest started at noon, at the corner of State St and Perry Avenue, the protestors all carrying their own signs, chanting and seated in their own lawn chairs.
Canadian Lakes community member Susan Malzahn spoke about why she believed it was important to her to be at this protest.
“I’m here because I just cannot stand what is happening to our country,” Malzahn said. “With ICE invading Minneapolis and all those poor people who are afraid to leave their homes or afraid to go to work. They are afraid to go out and do the legal things they are allowed to do here because ICE is coming out and grabbing them off the streets.”
Some people opposed the protest, as there were a couple of counter-protestors, mostly along Perry Avenue. The majority of the opposition came from drivers along State St.
Opposition came in the form of drivers rolling down their windows, hurling obscenities and filming the protestors. There were points during the protest where vehicles would ride alongside the protestors, revving their engines and shouting profanity in opposition.
There was plenty of support for the protestors, with cars driving past honking their horns in approval and rolling down their windows to cheer and support the protestors.
Incoming medical freshman Rebecca Barwick expressed her frustrations with the current events.
“It’s just barbaric what’s happening right now,” Barwick said. “Over the past year and a half, it is just not ending. So we have to really show people that, especially in an area like Big Rapids that is pretty conservative, that they are not alone. That it is ok to support being rational, and understanding that it’s not ok to take people in the streets away from their families.”
With the military strikes on Iran, and the assassination of the Iranian Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the protestors believe that America has lost its way and to take everything they see online with a grain of salt.