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A small group of organized protesters demonstrated on the sidewalk at the corner of Morgan Street and Lafayette Parkway on Sunday afternoon. The group of just over a half dozen protesters held signs and demonstrated for immigrant awareness and rights.

Organizers say the protesters are a mishmash of civil rights groups aiming to change perceptions about immigrants and let others know they are not alone and not afraid.

“We’re here because it’s enough, and we’re not scared, especially with this town. This town has really been extremely racist towards us, especially people in just a couple past months since Trump took over the office. I’m here demonstrating that we are not scared,” said protester Harry Rubio. 

Rubio said he was at the protest as a part of the Act Now to Stop War and End Racism (ANSWER) Coalition, but anyone was invited to the event.

“Due to all the antagonization, dehumanization, and just any racist attacks towards the Himalayan community, that’s why we decided to be here. Many of our community members have been attacked, have been harassed nationwide, just with really bad insults trying to tell us to go back to Spain, go back to wherever they came from,” Rubio said.

Rubio said that Hispanic people are being targeted by the federal government and not just undocumented immigrants. Legal residents and American citizens are being targeted as well, he said.

“This government is currently trying to put every policy they possibly can. There have been a lot of ICE incidents that have racially targeted our people, and that includes residents and citizens of this nation. Many of them have been stopped and detained by these federal authorities.”

“They try to intimidate us, on the fake big mainstream news media every single time they can possibly attack us,” Rubio said. “We’re being called criminals. They say we don’t pay taxes, that we steal jobs, that we abuse welfare, which is totally not true.”

Another of the protesters argued that immigrants help the country and the economy.

“Every single way that they’ve tried to present it as [deportations] will be a benefit to our economy, or that immigrants are an economic burden has been a complete lie. We see it nationwide as well. Construction sites are completely abandoned. Construction sites are literally left rotting in the rain,” a protester who only wanted to be identified as Andy said.

“What we’re trying to do here is not only show the American community and the American people that the real enemy doesn’t lie within the immigrants, but rather within the corporate oligarchy that’s just siphoning off everything, whether that be the dissolution of the Department of Education, the attacks on Social Security or other infrastructure bills that, in reality, are crippling the country,” Andy said.

“We are here with everybody else fighting for rights for what we believe in. They’re gonna stand for it, regardless if they like it or not,” Rubio said.