Multiple clergy members were arrested during a rally outside a federal courthouse building in Los Angeles Tuesday morning, ahead of a visit by Attorney General Jeff Sessions.
Crowds shouted, "Shame on you!" as several clergy members who were blocking the street outside the U.S. attorney's office in downtown L.A. were arrested and loaded into the back of police vans.
Crowd shouts “shame on you!” at police and then cheers as arrests are made outside US attorney’s office in downtown LA. pic.twitter.com/n6sRUqp7WN
— Mike Balsamo (@MikeBalsamo1) June 26, 2018
Just hours before Sessions was scheduled to visit for a Criminal Justice Legal Foundation luncheon at a hotel in downtown L.A., clergy members and other activists gathered to protest the Trump administration's immigration policies. These included the "zero-tolerance" policy of separating thousands of children from their parents who illegally crossed the border.
Several dozen clergy members became especially involved in the protest, forming a human chain that blocked the road while they began to chant: "Kids belong at home, not in cages."
Several dozen clergy members and protesters are now blocking the street outside the US attorney’s office in Los Angeles. They are chanting: “Kids belong at home, not in cages.” pic.twitter.com/vgJhkNy1Uf
— Mike Balsamo (@MikeBalsamo1) June 26, 2018
Members of the clergy sat, prayed and sang as Los Angeles police officers told the church members that their protest was an unlawful assembly and threatened to arrest them if they did not move. After a few minutes, a number of them were arrested, but it's not yet clear how many.
Members of the clergy sit, pray and sing as LAPD declares their protest an unlawful assembly and threatens arrests in five minutes. pic.twitter.com/z5FTuRs8n1
— Mike Balsamo (@MikeBalsamo1) June 26, 2018
Prior to the arrests, protesters showed up outside the U.S. attorney's office and chanted, "Jeff Sessions, get out the way.... We're gonna break the chains."
Chants begin during protest outside the US attorney’s office in Los Angeles ahead of AG Sessions visit: “Jeff Sessions, get out the way....we’re gonna break the chains.” pic.twitter.com/SCUQZYbI0A
— Mike Balsamo (@MikeBalsamo1) June 26, 2018
In early May, Sessions announced the Trump administration would begin separating parents and children at the border, a change from previous administrations' policies—including Trump's own at the time that allowed families to remain together. Protesters chanted the question, "Sessions, where's your heart?"
This is not the first time religious leaders have weighed in on the attorney general's immigration policies.
More than 600 clergy and church members of his own denomination, United Methodist Church, want to bring formal church charges against Sessions. They accused him of child abuse, immorality, racial discrimination and "dissemination of doctrines contrary to the established standards of doctrines" of the United Methodist Church.
