Protesters in Louisville, Kentucky were outraged Monday after police swiftly removed an encampment they had set up outside the city’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility as part of the national #OccupyICE movement.
Demonstrators had arrived at ICE’s offices early on Monday morning, setting up tents, erecting barricades to block law enforcement vehicles from entering the property, and placing toys in the driveway to symbolize the thousands of children who have been separated from their families by ICE under President Donald Trump’s “zero tolerance” immigration policy.
The Louisville Metro Police Department (LMPD) sent officers to the scene immediately, and the protesters had been on the property for just over two hours when Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officers arrived to force them to leave.
Protesters noted that Fischer had spoken out on Saturday against the Trump administration’s treatment of immigrant communities, calling Louisville a “welcoming” and “compassionate” city.
DHS removed the protesters days after officers in Portland, Oregon had done the same to the country’s original #OccupyICE protest. The encampment established on June 17 kept ICE’s facilities in Portland closed for more than a week.
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