RICHMOND, Va. β Hundreds gathered at the Virginia War Memorial Monday evening to protest recent actions from the White House during RVA Indivisible's MLK Day Vigil for Peace.
The event honored Martin Luther King Jr. while demonstrators called for peaceful resistance against current federal policies. Protesters expressed frustration over multiple issues, including the killing of Renee Good by an ICE agent, attacks on Venezuela, and President Trump's threats to deploy military forces to capture Greenland.
William McGee, president of the Richmond Chapter of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, emphasized the event's commitment to nonviolent demonstration.
"We're not going to tolerate what's going on in Washington right now, but we're going to do it in a nonviolent peaceful protest, and we're going to let everybody know that everybody in America doesn't think like those people in DC right now," McGee said. "Dr. King stood for peace. He stood for love, for justice, for treating people fairly, no matter where they were."
Tensions between ICE agents and protesters continue to escalate nationwide. Over the weekend, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem blamed Minnesota leaders for violent outbreaks during immigration enforcement operations.
"If he would set up a peaceful protest zone, so that these individuals can exercise their First Amendment rights and do so peacefully we would love that," Noem said on Face the Nation. "Then we could work together to make sure we're getting criminals to justice and still express their First Amendment rights."
A recent CBS poll revealed sharp partisan divisions on immigration protests. 82 percent of Republicans believe protesters against ICE have gone too far, while 48 percent of Democrats say they haven't gone far enough.
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