By Kanishka Singh
WASHINGTON, Jan 29 (Reuters) – Dozens of faith leaders were arrested in Washington on Capitol Hill while protesting President Donald Trump’s immigration policies and calling for funding to be restricted for the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, organizers said on Thursday.
“Today, powerful faith leaders took action in the halls of the U.S. Senate,” Faith in Action said in a statement. It also said that ICE, part of the Department of Homeland Security, had been “terrorizing” communities.
Members of the organizing group sat on the floor of the Hart Senate Office Building and carried banners that read “Do Justice, Love kindness, Abolish ICE.”
A U.S. Capitol Police spokesperson said “it is against the law” to demonstrate inside congressional buildings and that 54 demonstrators were arrested.
Visuals from the protest showed police making arrests as demonstrators sang while seated on the floor after officers warned them to leave.
The group said Bishop Dwayne Royster, executive director of Faith in Action, was arrested along with more than 60 other faith leaders.
Protests have broken out across the United States against Trump’s immigration policies after this month’s killing of two American citizens in Minnesota by federal immigration agents.
Protesters have demanded funding restrictions for ICE and accountability of its agents while some have also called for the agency to be abolished.
(Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Washington; editing by Donna Bryson and Himani Sarkar)
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