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Despite the cold weather, people lined up along Detroit Street Saturday.
Organizer Allyson Ross said the protest was against the brutality Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has been demonstrating after the shooting of Renee Good by an ICE agent Jan. 7 in Minneapolis, Minn.
Ross said she has personally been protesting since Roe vs. Wade was overturned.
Several protests have been organized in Warsaw since the beginning of President Donald Trump’s administration last year. Ross said the rallies have grown in size.
“A lot more people are coming out. Actually, the older generations are coming out as well, which actually surprises me and is great,” she said, noting “we generally think that the older generations are more conservative, more Republican, so it’s nice to see that they’re also seeing the injustice that we’re seeing.”
Ross said she organized Saturday’s rally through the Kosciusko Democrat Party, and was very impressed with the turnout considering how cold Saturday was.
According to an article from NPR, over 1,000 protests were scheduled for Jan. 10 and 11.
As far as Warsaw’s protest, Ross said having the protests on Jan. 10 was too late of notice to put together and Saturday protests usually have better turnout, so “it gave us a little bit more time to organize it and come out together as a community.”
She said she hopes with the protests, people start to see it’s not just immigrants ICE is targeting anymore.
“Any of us could be a target that’s out here today. I could be a target by ICE. Renee Good looked just like me. So that’s what I’m hoping people see, that’s it’s not just an immigration agency anymore, it’s a terrorist organization that’s going after citizens,” she said.
She hopes ICE is able to be defunded and abolished.
