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Hundreds of people rally in downtown Detroit, demand ICE stop separating families

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Hundreds of people came out to rally and rise up against ICE in downtown Detroit.

It was loud as several different organizations came out to peacefully speak out against ICE in front of the enforcement office. They’re demanding ICE stop tearing families apart and treat undocumented immigrants better.

"It’s overall immoral and wrong," said Chantel Watkins, one of the organizers and a social activist. 

It was one of several rallies in recent weeks held across the country in protest against ICE and separating families. 

"We’re protesting the conditions that the children are kept, the irreversible trauma that they are going through as well," Watkins said. 

The organizers say its inhumane for ICE to take children from their families, and what they’re doing to undocumented immigrants. 

"Some of them are being separated while their mothers are breast feeding them," Watkins said. "They’re young children."

Democratic candidate for governor, Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, says we can’t ignore what ICE is doing to our families and country.

Action News asked El-Sayed about the recent incident involving an undocumented immigrant who hit and killed a Wixom teen, then fled the scene, and what kind of image it paints for undocumented immigrants.

"For folks who are here who commit crimes, where they’re immigrants or not, we’ve got to hold them to the letter of the law," El-Sayed said. "But let’s be clear, they is nothing specific about that kind of an accident that calls out that person immigrant status." 

Watkins added, "I don’t think we need to be targeting immigrants and saying they are the root of crime, those things that happen like that can happen to any group of people."

The organizers say they will continue to hold rallies and make their voices heard until something is done.