Activist gathered to protest President Trump's immigration actions outside Fresno's federal courthouse

Saturday, January 28, 2017
Activist gathered to protest President Trump's immigration actions outside Fresno's federal courthouse
They gathered at the foot of the federal courthouse in Fresno were families and friends of undocumented workers pleading for justice from a system they say offer little.

FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- They gathered in droves at the foot of the federal courthouse in Fresno. Families and friends of undocumented workers pleading for justice from a system they say offer little.

"They're afraid to go to the stores, they're afraid to go out even to work, and stuff like that since Trump came," said Anarosa Romero, protester.

A human billboard stretched for a full block down Tulare Street. Earlier in the day several other protests popped up across the Valley. Many of the signs were directed at President Trump and so was much of the chanting.

"The fact that he wants to put up a wall and spend all these billions of dollars to really make that happen is just unbelievable," said Arturo S. Rodriquez, President, United Farm Workers.

Heavyweight speakers like Robert F. Kennedy Jr. spoke to the crowd-- recalling his family's history as immigrants from Ireland. He called out the President-- saying if the White House really wanted to end illegal immigration businesses that hire them should be fined first..

"What they want is that the immigrants who are undocumented in this country to be in a constant state of fear and anxiety so that they can take advantage of them and that they can turn them into slave labor."

The president has said his focus is on deporting criminals, but for thousands of undocumented farmworkers in the Valley they feel like they can be picked up at any moment too.

"I f you take action against the farmworkers, who is going to harvest the crops, who's gonna harvest and provide the food for his hotels, for Trump hotels for his golf courses," said Rodriquez.

"These are the people who feed us. These are the people who take care of us. Who care for our country and they are doing what every wave of immigrant has done in this country before them," said Kennedy .

These impassioned pleas stirring up the emotions of a crowd that now hope their political leaders will support.

Many of the farmworkers Friday work for Gerawan farming and are asking the Valley's biggest agriculture business to stand by them.