A Democratic lawmaker collapsed during a rally Wednesday in Washington, D.C., where several left-wing grassroots activists mixed with politicos to protest the Trump administration’s policy which allows the parents of illegal immigrants to be separated from their children born in the U.S.
Rep. Joe Crowley, D-N.Y., fell on the street in front of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection building, according to a CNN journalist, after protesters chanted, “Until they arrest us, we will stay here, however long it takes.”
Rep. Joe Crowley collapsed at the immigration protest, which moved from CBP to 15th Street near the White House. He stood up and was walked to a nearby hotel. Rep. Espaillat said he’s doing OK and getting cold water. pic.twitter.com/QGNvEmo6Ym
— Ted Hesson (@tedhesson) June 13, 2018
Crowley, 56, was then taken to a nearby hotel and later tweeted that he was “doing fine now,” before adding, “Wish I could say the same for the children and parents at the border.”
Thanks for everyone’s concern -doing fine now.
Wish I could say the same for the children and parents at the border.
— Rep. Joe Crowley (@repjoecrowley) June 13, 2018
At the rally, activists, congressmen, and even actor John Cusack gathered at Freedom Plaza and marched to the nearby CBP in D.C., where temperatures were in the mid to low 80s.
With the legend- today – Hitting the streets – pic.twitter.com/7V2JuoSIpB
— John Cusack (@johncusack) June 13, 2018
“I cannot think of an act more cruel and inhumane then to rip a child from the arms of their mother,” said Rep. Luis Gutierrez, D-Ill., addressing the crowd decrying Attorney General Jeff Sessions.
“The attorney general said that a woman fleeing from her husband — from death, from rape — that that’s a private matter,” the congressman added.
In response, the crowd chanted: “Shame! Shame!”
In early May, Sessions announced the Justice Department would no longer overlook first-time illegal entrants. Instead, anyone apprehended at the Southwest border would be referred to the DOJ for prosecution and judges were ordered to take up additional cases and not mark them as unresolved.
During the Obama administration, the Department of Homeland Security moved to process illegal entrant cases through “administrative closure,” which meant they were temporarily handled, but not permanently resolved and those people were dismissed into the interior of the country.
The Trump administration’s month-old zero tolerance policy was an attempt to offset spiking apprehension numbers by prosecuting all illegal entrants, including the parents or guardians who arrived at the border with underage children.
But in their remarks, the congressmen in attendance boiled down the policy as a “cruel and inhumane” that tears children apart from their parents.
“A woman fleeing to the United States is not a private matter, attorney general. It is a matter we will take into our hands and give her the asylum and the safety that she knows,” Gutierrez said.
“We will speak loud and clear to a man who occupies 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue,” Crowley said at the event. “What his government is doing is acting in a fascist way. This is not America as we know it. What they are doing is committing psychological torture against children who are being forcibly separated from their parents, who are coming to America, who are fleeing domestic violence, gang violence, and political unrest.”
“They are forced to make a selfish choice,” he continued. “Do I stay here and expose my child to maybe death or do I try to go to the United States, travel hundreds, maybe thousands of miles for the opportunity to breathe free?”
