OBSERVER Photo by Jo Ward A large crowd attended Saturday’s Families Belong Together Rally in Washington Park, Dunkirk.

A sea of white formed in Washington Park in Dunkirk on Saturday, as people carried signs and sat in quiet solidarity with groups from all over the nation, protesting the separation and detainment of immigrant families at the U.S. and Mexico border .

Individuals from the Chautauqua County Women’s Action Group (CCWAG) along with the Chautauqua County League of Women Voters and the Social Action Committee of the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Northern Chautauqua spoke at length about the injustices they and many others believe have been afflicted on families attempting to gain asylum in the United States.

“The problem isn’t an immigrant mother taking her children to school, paying taxes, going to church and working hours at a minimum wage job. The problem is the Trump administration targeting immigrants like her when there is no process in place for undocumented immigrants to apply for legal status.” Janey Wagner, CCWAG co-chair stated. She went on to talk of the horrors families are fleeing from in their home countries and how when they arrived here were met with even more. “These are our demands.” She began. “Reunite families now! End family detention. Family incarceration is not the solution! Reverse the Trump administration’s policy of criminally prosecuting parents for doing what all parents do, which is to try to bring their children to safety. There’s not yet a credible plan to reunite the children who have been shipped far away from their parents and such a plan is urgently needed. Our demand is clear and non-negotiable — reunite families! End family separation and detention. Detaining families is not a solution, it’s a jail sentence. Kids are not pawns, families belong together and this is a moral choice.”

CCWAG went on to issue this statement: “Condemning any policy which separates and detains families. We do not support legislation or policies which do not meet United Nations standards for protecting human rights.”

Following rounds of applause from the many people gathered on the lawn by the gazebo, guest speaker, Miriam Lugo-Alfaro, a teacher of 18 years at Dunkirk High School took the mic to share her own personal story with immigration.

“My mom was pregnant and my dad had $7 in his pocket when they came from Puerto Rico in 1969,” she said. “He came to find a better place for his family.”

With hard work, her family prospered and she met her husband, who was an undocumented immigrant from Guatemala. He soon achieved political asylum following their marriage, and after rounds of paperwork, became a legal resident and then a naturalized citizen.

“We have to give people opportunities. Back then in the United States, you didn’t have to go through a process of paying a visa and paying for all sorts of other things. I know we need our borders secure, but this is the wrong way.” Lugo-Alfaro stated.

“My family and I take this stand based on our reading scripture; the main theme being to ‘love our neighbor’ which we believes includes the neighbor knocking on the national door.”

Music and song was shared by those in attendance and soon Diane Clark read a statement from the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee.

“The Trump administration’s egregious immigration policies are tearing families apart. We cannot allow members of our shared community to be further criminalized, separated from their families and deported to the dangers that they were fleeing from. The president’s June 20 executive order does little to ensure the families will be protected and our asylum system kept strong. The order fails to reverse the zero-tolerance policy of criminally prosecuting families. It’s a further horror that the order makes no mention of family reunification. This practice is an affront to basic humanitarian principles.”

Marie Tomlinson of the League of Women Voters also shared a statement from her group. “We lobby to have our money be invested in things more productive. We can invest in prisons and schools and schools have a much better return on the dollar.”