Durango and Bayfield area residents aren’t letting the Trump administration’s illegal deportations and tariff tantrums escape the public eye.
Around 850 area residents converged at Buckley Park where speakers railed against President Donald Trump’s and his administration’s forced removal of immigrants, and about 700 participants marched to 835 East Second Ave., the Durango office of U.S. Rep. Jeff Hurd, to continue demonstrating.
The protest, which Indivisible Durango member Karen Pontius described as a joint Hands Off! and 50501 (50 Protests, 50 States, One Movement) rally, resonated with thousands like it across the country.
Earlier in the afternoon, approximately 100 people, including residents of Ignacio and Farmington, demonstrated in Bayfield in a grassroots effort called Pine River Rising.
Organizers and attendees at the protests said they were motivated to action because of the Trump administration’s lack of due process in deporting immigrants and the president’s suggestion U.S. citizens could suffer the same punishment.
“Trump takes a (expletive) on our Constitution every day,” resident Amy McClintock said. “His executive orders are largely illegal. ... He’s a criminal and he’s continuing his criminal behavior in the White House, using our tax dollars for his personal pleasure and gain. His entire regime is fascist and they all need to be kicked out.”
She said it takes just one act of Congress to stop Trump’s “tyranny,” and Democrats are doing a good job resisting the Trump administration, but Republicans are failing the people.
Resident Karen Skelly attended the rally with a cardboard sign that read “No kings, no dictators, no fascists.”
She said “a few” U.S. representatives and senators, such as Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Sen. Bernie Sanders, are starting to take action. But federal elected officials need to “get angrier” and turn up the resistance against the Trump administration.
She said she would prefer if Sen. Michael Bennet did not run for governor because he is needed in the Senate and she prefers gubernatorial candidate and current Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser.
Pine River Rising member Pam Willhoite said she was reluctant to share her last name because the Bayfield area community is relatively small, but protesting in solidarity with other residents gives her courage.
She said a rally held in conjunction with Hands Off! rallies around the country on April 5 resulted in about 80 new people signing up with Pine River Rising, a grassroots movement that sprouted just several months ago.
“We’re really looking at ways of bringing people in and getting our community even stronger, because I think that helps us feel like we can stand up and we feel brave to use our voices,” she said.
Ed Cash said the lack of due process demonstrated by the Trump administration “dominates” his concerns. He said he rallied in Bayfield on Saturday to raise awareness of people being illegally removed and transported to an El Salvador prison.
Rain and snow did nothing to slow down protesters, he said. People turned out regardless of the weather. He appreciated passersby waving and motorists honking their horns in shows of support.
Mia Douglas said she traveled to Bayfield from Farmington because the Pine River Rising rally was the closest movement she could reach.
She said the weather was “horrid and cold.”
“But our hearts were warm,” Emily Jensen, Pine River Rising organizer, chimed.
She said Pine River Rising meets once a week, and all are welcome to join in sharing their ideas and concerns.
cburney@durangoherald.com
