Protestors: ‘Families Belong Together’

Protestors hit the streets in Huntington Station on Saturday in opposition of the Trump Administration’s immigration policy. (Photo courtesy of Dr. Eve Krief)

Protestors again took to the streets of Huntington on Saturday in opposition of the Trump Administration’s immigration policy.

Hundreds lined Route 110 in Huntington Station for the Huntington’s Families Belong Together Rally to protest what rally organizers called the cruelty and dehumanization immigrants are subject to.

“As pediatricians… parents and Americans, we oppose the separation of children and families,” said Dr. Steve Goldstein, a pediatrician and president of New York Chapter 2 American Academy of Pediatrics. “Our mission is to protect the health and well-being of all children, regardless of their immigration status.”

Rally organizers said that, despite an executive order signed by Trump on June 20 that ended the policy, many of the 2,390 children separated from their parents have not been returned. Protestors demanded that the children be returned.

“The trauma these children continue to endure is inexcusable,” said Dr. Eve Krief, a Huntington-based pediatrician and founder of nonprofit Long Island Inclusive Communities Against Hate. “These children never should have been torn away from their parents’ arms. They will without a doubt suffer lifelong consequences because of the way they and their parents were so inhumanely treated.”

Representatives of more than 50 local organizations attended the rally, including The Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Huntington, League of Women Voters of Huntington, New York Second District Democrats, Huntington Rapid Response Network, Friends of Huntington Station Latin Quarter and Huntington Young Democrats.

Pilar Moya, founder of Latinos Unidos de Long Island, members of which also attended the rally, said, “We hope our rally displays the love and compassion we hope that America can represent, as well as the hopeful and powerful nature of our democracy.

Our message to the families separated at the border is: ‘You matter, and our voices are our extensions of yours.’”

-ANDREW WROBLEWSKI