By Larry Bodine, LD18 Board Member
A huge crowd gathered at Reid Park along both sides of 22nd Street and Country Club on April 5 in Tucson as part of the nationwide Hands Off! protests. More than 150 groups, including civil rights organizations, labor unions, veterans and election activists, organized the demonstrations in more than 1,200 locations in all 50 states.
Demonstrators voiced anger over the administration’s moves to:
- Fire thousands of federal workers
- Close Social Security Administration field offices
- Effectively shutter entire agencies
- Deport immigrants
- Scale back protections for transgender people
- Cut funding for health programs.
The April 5 protest drew an estimated 15,000 attendees, according to initial counts by the organizers.
The protests, hosted by Mobilize Tucson, aimed to “unite against these attacks on our constitution,” said to Bennett Burke of the group. Drivers honked their horns in support so loud that it sounded like freight trains pulling into the station.
Opponents of President Donald Trump and his billionaire advisor Elon Musk rallied across the U.S. to protest several administration actions. More than two dozen protests were planned across Arizona, including in Phoenix, Flagstaff, Sedona and several smaller cities.
Speaking at the state capitol, Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes vowed the American people “will not go quietly!”
Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes joined the protest in Sedona, energizing the crowd as she highlighted the ongoing legal battles Democratic 23 attorneys general have launched against President Donald Trump, the Republic reported. Read: “There is a Coup Taking Place,” says Attorney General Kris Mayes.
“When Donald Trump decided that he wanted to strike out unilaterally birthright citizenship, we sued him, and we won,” Mayes said. “When they tried to fire 25,000 probationary federal workers, we sued them and got them stopped.”