Immigrant rights urgent, protesters say, as raft of outrages animate 'No Kings' rally of thousands at Iowa State Capitol
DES MOINES, Iowa —
Amid a sea of signs Saturday afternoon at the "No Kings" rally decrying what thousands of demonstrators say are autocratic-leaning outrages and terrorizing overreaches from the Trump administration a young Windsor Heights couple stood with protest posters trained on the rights and lives of immigrants.
A mix of hastily scribbled and elaborately artistic posters and signs and chants from the demonstrators on the west side of the state capitol in Des Moines criticized Trump and Republican leaders on a raft of policies from the application of Justice Department and military forces and resources to abortion rights to water quality to foreign affairs to spending cuts to social programs. Thousands of people attended the rally from noon to about 2 p.m., and hundreds of protestors who gathered at the capitol marched downtown. The 50501 Movement (50 states, 50 protests, 1 movement) hatched the concept, which involved other progressive organizations across the nation.
Immigrant rights stood out in the No Kings' rally in Des Moines, a coordinated collection of 2,000 protests across the nation centered largely on the Trump administration's crackdown on immigration, but serving as a broader rebuke to the president's policies in the hours before a military parade in Washington. D.C. to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the U.S. Army and Trump's 79th birthday as well as Flag Day.
C.J. Floyd, 22, and Arianna Floyd, 21, a married couple from Windsor Heights, were there for this protest, as they have been for other progressive causes in the last year, Arianna said, as she held a sign saying "MELT ICE, immigrants make America great."
"I feel like it's our most prevalent problem because if we don't stop their attack on immigrants, then where's the line, where does it stop?" Arianna said. "Once they come for the immigrants who comes next because they're not going to stop with just the immigrants. They're going to come for the gay communities and then other communities of minorities. Nobody is safe until everybody is safe."
C.J. Floyd had a more personal reason for being at the protest, too. He said Trump's tariffs, especially those in the agriculture sector, cost him a great job as a welder involved in building grain towers.
"We got a lot of business from Canada," he said.
Kim Callahan, 55, of Des Moines, a membership coordinator with Iowa Citizens For Community Improvement (Iowa CCI) who also works with the Izaak Walton League of America on nitrate testing in Iowa waterways, said a range of issues were represented beyond No Kings’ focus on what organizers say are Trump's autocratic policies.
"Iowa alone has a lot of issues and you can see them represented here everywhere in everybody's signs," Callahan, who grew up in Carroll and Des Moines, said. "Clean water, I heard somebody talking about that. The No Kings situation that we are dealing with as a country. The threats to our Democracy — what happened in Minnesota this morning, killing a state legislator."
Callahan was referring to the murder of a Minnesota state legislator and her husband early this morning, and the wounding of another Minnesota lawmaker and his spouse, in what the governor of that state, Tim Walz, is describing as a "political assassination" and attempt.
"This is an inflection point," Callahan said. "We have crossed a line. We arrested a U.S. senator a couple of days ago, Senator Padilla, and now they have killed a state legislator. I feel like we are beyond the pale in this country at this point."
Patrick Ryan, 56, a former staffer for U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin and former career member of the Foreign Service, said the treatment of U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla, a California Democrat, at the hands federal authorities who frog-marched him out of a news conference being held by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, and then shoved him to the ground and handcuffed the 52-year-old senator who clearly identified himself as an elected official at the event in a federal building in the state he represents.
"That's the most blatant demonstration of fascism," Ryan said. "We're there folks."
Friends in the intelligence community and state department and Capitol Hill have contacted Ryan since the treatment of Padilla, Ryan said, noting that he attended the No Kings rally in Des Moines in large part because of his deep concern about what happened to Padilla.
"It shows that they have no respect for anybody," Ryan said of the Trump administration. "The Supreme Court has given Trump broad immunity."
Roslin Thompson of Newton, former long-time librarian at the Knoxville Public Library, said she was standing up for neighbors and friends who can't be at the event.
"I think the evidence of having this many to show up and fight Trump is what we need to do," Thompson said. "We need to get rid of him."
Destiny Streeter, 25, of Des Moines, who works with children on the Autism spectrum, came to the event with a sign addressing immigration.
"I just have always believed that every human deserves to at least have due process," Streeter said.
"It just looks to me like anyone who is in opposition to the red party that is in Congress right now they are either going to be detained or worse and that's a very scary feeling," Streeter said.
C.J. Floyd said that he does have optimism for the United States as a 22 year old.
"I believe that we as the people can stand up and fight for our rights and the rights of all people so that we can all live in peace," Floyd said. "It's not that much to ask for, I feel like. We can get along. It doesn't need to be this way. It's insane."
Iowa Mercury reached out to both the Iowa State Patrol and Des Moines Police Department for official crowd estimates. Neither had provided one by press time.
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(Douglas Burns, founder of The Iowa Mercury and a fourth-generation Iowa journalist from Carroll, is a member of the Iowa Writers’ Collaborative. Read dozens of the most talented writers in Iowa in just one place. The Iowa Writers' Collaborative spans the full state. It’s one of the biggest things going in Iowa journalism and writing now — and you don’t want to miss. This collaborative is — as the outstanding Quad Cities journalist Ed Tibbetts says — YOUR SUNDAY IOWA newspaper. )
Great recap of the event, Doug - and roundup (in their words) of the injustices protestors are fighting.
The feeling of solidarity, commitment and community was palpable, and a most welcome moment on a day of determination and mourning. Everyone was friendly, considerate and respectful. There is hope alive amongst us.