By Patrick Baron

NORMAL – Protesters circled Uptown Normal Thursday afternoon to call on legislative leaders to enact laws that keep illegal immigrant families together.

The debate has reached new heights nationwide after detained families were separated after crossing the border into America. President Trump has since signed legislation to keep families together and to reunite families who have been separated. During the event, Sonny Garcia addressed the crowd and said those families are being used by legislative leaders.

“Some of our elected officials are using them as political pawns all for profit,” Garcia told the crowd. “They want to fill private prisons with people of color, with immigrants, with African Americans, with working class white poor people.”

Garcia said both Democrats and Republicans were “complicit” in separating families at the border. He said “non-violent, direct” protests are not likely to slow down anytime soon.

“People are united, we are mobilized, and we are going to make sure that they hear our message,” said Garcia.

One attendee of the event was Anthony Gambino. He said there’s more going on in the immigration debate than the protesters were addressing.

“We can’t take in all of the third world, it’s just not practical,” said Gambino. “Elites don’t want to pay working class Americans a decent wage, they want to pay people from Honduras and Guatemala pennies on the dollar.”

Gambino also said families shouldn’t be separated at the border and they should be returned to their native homes together. He said while he understands their reasons for coming to America, they are allowing themselves to be manipulated by elites.

“A lot of people are fleeing out of economic necessity. A lot of them would rather at stay home, be with their own people like any normal person would, I totally understand that,” Gambino explained. “I just believe that they are being played by the same elites that are playing these people at the protest.”

Patrick Baron can be reached at [email protected].