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One hundred anti-ICE protesters were arrested Saturday for blocking Manhattan’s West Side Highway in New York City.
Reports said the demonstrators sat in the middle of the busy highway with arms linked, causing officials to shut down part of the road. Photos show protestors wearing placards that read “Close the Camps” and “No Human is Illegal.”
“You are unlawfully in the roadway and obstructing vehicular traffic. You are ordered to leave the roadway,” an NYPD command speaker can be heard saying in video footage of the event.
The protesters reportedly chanted “ICE lurks here,” and “ICE raids have got to go” as they blocked traffic.
“We’re pretty happy about [the arrests]. That was the goal,” said protester Miriam Bernstein, 32. “People volunteered specifically to be arrested … We were disrupting traffic to raise awareness and get some support.”
Katia Perea, a sociology professor who attended the protest, said their actions were meant to show that they do not support violence.
“Civil disobedience shows that we aren’t violent. In fact, we don’t support violence,” she said.
Reports said those arrested on Saturday are expected to be charged with disorderly conduct.
In a similar instance last month, Breitbart News reported that hundreds of demonstrators outside an ICE facility in Aurora, Colorado, removed an American flag and replaced it with the Mexican flag to protest the so-called “concentration camps” at the southern border.
The International Socialist Collective of Boulder, a group that organized the event, called on members and attendees to “hold all elected officials responsible for the continued mistreatment of asylum seekers and the separation of families.”
“Tens of thousands of refugees/asylum seekers – babies, toddlers, children, and adults – are being brutalized in concentration camps across the US. People of good conscience must come together to stop the dehumanization and abuse of all who are being held in these horrific conditions,” an event flyer posted to the group’s Facebook page read.
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