Bells rang and horns honked as a crowd of protesters rallied in the heat against actions by the Trump Administration on Saturday morning in Las Cruces at Albert Johnson Park near city hall. The "No Kings" protest was one of many across the country.
Daisy Weber, a twenty-five-year old Las Cruces resident at the rally voiced concerns about the military being deployed in California in response to protests there. Weber also voiced support for abortion rights.
“Specifically, everything I’ve been seeing in L.A. is really distressing, the way that they brought out the military against U.S. citizens,” Weber said. “My sign right here says reproductive rights are human rights, that’s definitely a concern for me as a woman in general.”
Sheri Reinhart, a volunteer at the event with Indivisible Las Cruces said she’s hoping for change.
“I’m just a person that believes we are all equal and we all need to be treated the same,” Reinhart said.
Gary Reger from Mesilla Park attended the rally and shared why he was there.
“I’m super worried, of course, about women’s rights and abortion, I’m super worried about immigrants being arrested by masked men on the street with no ID, and I’m also very worried about climate change,” Reger said.
Zeke Rodriguez, second vice-chair of the Doña Ana County Republican Party said in response to the protests, that a lot of people were “misinformed” with the issue of deportations of immigrants who may be in the country illegally. Rodriguez said the focus of these deportations is on criminals.
“All that angst and this no kings stuff is just really misplaced I think that if everyone understood that these are the worst of the worst people,” Rodriguez said. “And we don’t have any interest on just getting rid of everybody, that doesn’t make any sense and is not reasonable, but what is reasonable is that the individuals are here illegally."
The protest on Saturday was one of many happening across the country.
