2,500 gather in downtown Hendersonville for "No Kings" protest of federal actions
Attendees criticized immigration enforcement, proposed cuts to social services including Medicare and Social Security and the federal response to other demonstrations, including in Los Angeles, where the Trump administration deployed the U.S. Marine Corps that day, according to USA TODAY reporting.
People carried signs that read 'No king, no dictator, no oligarchs,' and '$$$ for vets, not parades,' referring to proposed cuts to Veterans Affairs benefits and a June 14 military parade in Washington.
They chanted 'Power to the people, Chuck Edwards is a coward,' referring to a perception among his critics that the U.S. House Republican is unwilling to push back against President Donald Trump's agenda.
Organizer Laura Bannister told the Times-New that, after consulting with the Hendersonville Police Department, she estimated around 2,500 people attended – five times the number that had turned out for a protest she organized in February.
She had been worried about counter-protesters disrupting the event, but few actually showed up and 'the police did a great job' of keeping the two camps separate, she said.
Joan Kershner, 84, told the Times-News that she was born in the U.S. two years after her parents escaped Nazi Germany in 1938.
'Would I be a citizen under some people's ideas about citizenship? I don't know,' she said. 'To ostracize (immigrants) and treat them as badly as they're being treated is morally wrong and bad for our country.'
Denise Cumbee Long works for the nonprofits Literacy Connection and True Ridge, which teach English and provide legal assistance and other services to immigrants.
Many immigrants she works with afraid of 'coming out, going to their jobs, (because they're) worried about being picked up by ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement),' including when they go to Citizenship and Immigration Services hearings in Charlotte.
'We've heard of some people who are not taking public transport anymore, who don't want to drive,' she said. 'Some people are afraid to send their kids to school.'
At around 11:15 a.m., organizers paused the protest to hold a moment of silence for Minnesota Democratic state Rep. Melissa Hortman, who Reuters reported was shot and killed that morning, along with her husband, in what authorities say was a political assassination.
'I marched in Memphis. I never thought I'd have to do this again,' Fannie Smith, 68, told the Times-News soon after, seeming to refer both to political violence and the need for civil rights activism related to immigration.
Smith, a former employee of the Executive Office for Immigration Review, said that she would march to the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, the site of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s 1968 assassination, on MLK Day starting in the 1980s.
'People think that small towns don't care, a red county doesn't care,' she said. 'But there are people here that do care. We love our country. We love our flag.'
Holbart Toledo, 42, came to the United State from Ecuador 25 years ago.
'I'm more worried about people around me, because I've been in this country for so long, and I love the country and I feel safe,' he said, but he still carries his passport with him, just in case.
'With all this happening … You don't even know now anymore what can happen.'
The Henderson County Sheriff's Office provided the Times-News a brief written statement saying that the June 14 protest was respectful of the community and of law enforcement, but did not address criticism of its cooperation with ICE.
Rep. Edwards' office couldn't be reached for comment by deadline.
More: Photos: 'No Kings' protest draws thousands to downtown Asheville
George Fabe Russell is the Henderson County Reporter for the Hendersonville Times-News. Tips, questions, comments? Email him at GFRussell@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Hendersonville Times-News: Hendersonville "No Kings" protest draws 2,500, organizers say
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