The ACLU of Indiana held a rally in Indianapolis Friday to protest what it calls inhumane immigration policies. The focus was on policies that separate children from their immigrant and asylum-seeking parents.
Ashley Toruno works on community engagement at the ACLU.
Toruno’s parents fled Nicaragua when she was young to escape violence and corruption. She says many of the families separated by ICE and Border Patrol agents are in the same situation.
“Being separated at that point, after already facing so much trauma, coming from the violence to then seeking asylum, then facing that at the border on top of all of that…it’s just inhumane,” Toruno says.
Toruno says children were separated from parents during the Obama administration, but says a zero-tolerance policy passed by the Trump administration increased the practice.
ACLU attorneys filed a federal lawsuit earlier this year – it challenges the practice of sending the children of these families to detention centers.
Eleven people attended the event. It was one of about 150 rallies held around the country.