Despite freezing temperatures, hundreds of demonstrators gathered at Federal Plaza downtown Chicago on Monday morning to protest President Donald Trump’s inauguration.
The U.S. Palestinian Community Network, alongside a coalition of around 80 other organizations, participated in the protest.
Their demonstration aimed at resisting the policies President Trump plans on enacting as he re-enters office.
Those policies, they said, could limit women’s rights and continue the support for the Israel-Hamas war.
The protestors marched from the Federal Plaza to Trump Tower.
Faayani Aboma Mijana, a leader in the Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression (CAARPR) organization, said that Trump’s second term might be “even worse” than his first one.
“We are here to oppose all repression that he intends to bring to all working and oppressed people,” Mijana said. “Whether that be queer people. Whether that be attacks on Black people, attacks on immigrants, attacks on labor.”
One of the principal concerns for many of the demonstrators was immigration.
According to reports released Friday, the Trump administration plans to carry out immigration raids in Chicago beginning Tuesday. While the size of the operation is unclear, hundreds of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents are expected in the city, according to the reports.
Esme Vasquez, a senior student at the University of Illinois at Chicago, said that people in her school’s community and neighborhood are afraid.
“It was very, very scary to live through that,” Vasquez said in regard to Trump’s first term. “To still have to go through this again is very scary.”
With both of her parents being from Mexico, Vasquez feels directly impacted by Trump’s plans, she said.
“I went to school in Pilsen,” said Vasquez. “I remember when people would say, ‘the ICE agents are posted up at the train station,’ and how people would leave class to just go cry, or to call their parents or check in on people they know who are undocumented.”
Many others emphasized the importance of speaking out.
For Aleks Sokolov, it was Trump’s mass deportation plan, restrictions on healthcare and unilateral support toward Israel that prompted him to attend this protest, he said.
His family’s history of protesting further motivated him to voice his concerns on Monday.
“People are going to stand up,” Sokolov said. “I want the administration to remember that people are not going to stay silent as this is happening, that they will not be unopposed no matter how hard they try.”
Another protest set to take place Monday, organized by the Chicago branch of the Party for Social and Liberation organization (PSL), was postponed to Jan. 25. Protestors will also march in opposition to Trump’s second presidential term, his administration’s deportation plans and the United States sending aid to Israel.