Anti-ICE protest held in SW Detroit: 'No matter where we come from, we are American'

DETROIT (FOX 2) - More than 100 people protested against arrests of illegal migrants near Clark Park in Southwest Detroit Tuesday.

The large crowd gathered in the area of Vernor and Clark streets protested against the recent US Immigration and Customs Enforcement crackdowns by the Trump Administration.

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The neighborhood is a large part of Detroit's Mexican community, of which many protesting said were against the arrests of migrants, and said that legal residents have also been detained, as well.

"No matter where we come from, we are American, we belong in this country," said Vanessa Sanchez, an organizer of the protest. "We build your homes, we do the landscaping, we clean your houses. Our kids are contributing to this country."

"Do you guys like tacos? Yeah? Where do you think that comes from," she quipped. "Us."

Sanchez said she did not agree that those without papers are breaking the law.

"It's not a crime not to have papers, it definitely isn't," she said. "It's something that came up in previous administrations and now that's a crime. How is that a crime? A crime is if you are murdering somebody, if you are stealing, if you are doing these things. Yeah, you see certain things on the news, but did you see any of that here?"

Fellow protester Daniel Mara is a DREAMer who is undocumented who came to the US as a child under Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA).

He said his parents did come to the country illegally and says they are going through the legal process for citizenship right now.

"My mother, she's here legally and they took her for 10 days without any cause," he said. "She was a passenger in a car."

FOX 2: "What about your father?"

"He's here too," Mara said. "My father is 100 percent worried. He's not hiding, he's at the house. He walks out, he goes everywhere."

Mara was asked if his father is illegal, what should happen to him.

"That's a hard question for me to answer because if I am speaking about my parents, I'm speaking for everybody," he said. "What we don't know is what people are going to go through once they get caught."