Protesters gather in Jefferson City Sunday, speak out against ICE, joint US-Israel attack on Iran
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (KMIZ)
Protesters gathered in the Capital city on Sunday afternoon to speak out against a crackdown on immigration in the United States.
The protest was scheduled before President Donald Trump announced the joint US-Israel attack on Iran early Saturday morning, but one protester said the attack was another reason to protest the administration.
"A war in Iran killing 107 students in an elementary school, killing a supreme leader, is unacceptable," Fulton resident Khyron Cooper said. "We should be going for peace, love and changing perspectives instead of celebrating war and killing people."
Cooper referenced Gov. Mike Kehoe's Facebook post following the president's announcement.
In the post, Kehoe acknowledges that Iran has been a threat to the U.S., and asks people to pray for the safety of those serving in the military.
Iran and the U.S. have had a tense relationship leading up to the attack. A political science professor at the University of Missouri told ABC 17 News on Saturday that it dates back over 40 years. Although every president has had a different foreign policy stance with Iran, Trump was the first to engage in military action.
Shelby Dorfman, a protester from Columbia, said the attack is infuriating.
"This has absolutely nothing to do with the greater good and about being a part of community. This is just absolutely ridiculous," Dorfman said. "This does not have to be our lives, we do not have to let this happen."
Jordan Herrera is a veteran who drove from Kansas City to be a part of the protest at the Capitol.
"I'm a person who served in Iraq and Afghanistan on the premise that there were weapons of mass destruction, which we never found," Herrera said. "If the Trump Administration is now going to say that they (Iran) have the ability to develop a missile, meaning they don't have the missile technology today, they need to develop it, I don't understand why we're bombing Iran."
He is also running for Missouri's 4th Congressional District, which Republican Mark Alford currently holds.
While the focus of the rally was to protest ICE and federal agent brutality involving citizens and noncitizens, one protester held a sign that read, "Let ICE show us what tough guys they are, send them to Iran to fight."
Protesters speak out against ICE
Robert Olsen spoke at the protest about his best friend, Owen Ramsingh, who was detained by ICE in September for drug charges from his youth. Ramsingh was deported to the Netherlands in February.
Olsen said Ramsingh is struggling now that he's out of an El Paso detention center.
"His daughter passed away about 11 months ago, and he's been incarcerated in the ICE detention camp for five months," Olsen said. "How do you think you'd be feeling? He's traumatized."
Ramsingh posted on Facebook shortly after arriving in his home country, the Netherlands, detailing the facility's conditions.
Olsen said he's seeing his best friend soon.
"I'm flying over there Wednesday to see him and give him the biggest hug that I've given him in many years," Olsen said.
Dorfman said the whole situation is sad and infuriating.
"Because of how upsetting it is to see someone who changes Columbia in such a positive way to be taken from his home just because he went to visit his family members," Dorfman said.
