‘We’re pulling people together’: No Kings protests return to Phoenix amid mass deportations

This Saturday marked another record-breaking turnout for the second round of No Kings protest, a series of peaceful protests organized by the 50501 Movement and local grassroots organizations in cities across the country. 

Earlier this year, Arizonans braved the heat in June to march for the first No Kings protest held in response to the estimated $45 million U.S. Army anniversary and birthday parade the 47th president, Donald Trump, threw for himself at the nation’s capital. In its second iteration, pop-up demonstrations taking place in Phoenix, Mesa, Glendale and Tempe brought out crowds numbering in the thousands. 

“We’re here today to stand up with the masses of people who are fed up with the Trump administration and the billionaires behind it,” Alexia Isaias, a member of the Party of Socialism and Liberation’s (PSL) Phoenix chapter, said standing in front of the Arizona State Capitol building in Phoenix alongside protestors that had gathered and marched as early as 8 a.m. “Working people of all backgrounds — immigrants, Latinos, people who have had enough with the system — can become united together to actually create change in a time when [Trump is] basically pulling people apart, we’re pulling people together.” 

This weekend’s protest united even more people of various political backgrounds, flags of various countries and symbolic meanings, creative and well-humored signs, local performers and a new whacky form of resistance: inflatable costumes — a tribute to Portland protestors facing violent confrontations from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) agents that were seen in a viral video pepper-spraying the air vent of a protestor dressed in an inflatable frog suit. 

“We’re being tread upon,” Catherine (Cat) Dragon, a native Arizonan and one of the protestors present at the P.F. Chang’s Plaza in Scottsdale, said from inside of her inflatable cat suit and matching cat sign, which read “Don’t Tread On Me-ow.” 

“I think [this] shows that [the Trump administration’s] narrative is false. We are here peacefully. We are here for our First Amendment rights; we need to stand up for those. And being here together, showing unity, is more powerful.” 

Among the signs and suited crowds marching through intersections in Scottsdale, over the freeway on Cole Park Bridge in Tempe, in the streets of downtown Phoenix and all along Bell Road in Glendale were equally frustrated demonstrators with dire concerns over events and revelations that have taken place since the last No Kings protest.

“It’s really easy to feel overwhelmed and fearful right now… but we’re also having a reaction where we’re laughing at people for the goofy things they’re saying. We’re standing together,” Beth Strano, the executive director of the Borderlands Resource Initiative, said while tabling alongside Puente, an additional migrant justice grassroots organization, at the state capitol. “There’s all these people dressed as frogs… I think it helps us remember that we do have tools, and we have this community and these people are all out here with us. I feel like the tone feels more hopeful, more optimistic, in spite of how things have progressed.” 

While there were some recycled signs from the protests over summer, new ones arose addressing the National Guard deployments in Illinois, the vast numbers of both citizens and migrants detained unlawfully by ICE, the ongoing government shutdown and GOP House Speaker Mike Johnson’s refusal to swear in Arizona Rep.-elect Adelita Grijalva to finalize a vote on the release of the heavily debated Epstein files. 

“We have seen… an escalation by the Trump administration — targeting immigrants, targeting brown communities, Black communities — across the board, people’s rights being violated. So, that escalation since the last No Kings probably brought up some more people than the last time,” Victoria López, the executive director at the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Arizona, said at the organization’s set-up table at the capitol complex, where they were handing out merchandise, stickers and free copies of the U.S. Constitution. “[We’re] out here to just be in community with people, to support the right to protest, the right to dissent, the right to push back against the abuse of power that we’re seeing with the federal government today, to make sure that people know their rights and to make sure that people have the resources to be able to defend themselves, their families and their communities.” 

“There’s so many people that are really waking up to what is happening to migrants in our community. This has been happening for a long time, but obviously the amount of money and power that’s being thrown in immigration enforcement now is unprecedented,” Strano said. “We know that headlines can be overwhelming and people can feel like ‘I don’t know how to help, I don’t know if I can help,’ and we have a way to directly work with impacted migrants every day and to actually help.” 

Borderlands, Puente Human Rights Movement, ACLU Arizona and PSL Phoenix are only some of several local grassroots organizations that have maintained a constant presence not only at protests and events meant to uplift and support people affected by the current administration, but also building trust within their communities by providing free legal clinics, a rapid response hotline that keeps track of ICE in the Valley and trainings for various accompaniment programs for people at risk of detainment going to their immigration court appointments. 

After the protests conclude and the marches dissipate, these local organizers continue their fight by encouraging and inviting people to join them in organizing even further to incite the change they hope to see within their communities. 

“[People] have been told time and time again that this is just the way it is, but I think that when they see the messaging, they know that now is the time to get organized and involved,” Isaias said. “I think it’s about combating the narrative that immigrants are being given all this healthcare and that they need to be deported because of this and this. When, in reality, it’s the billionaires. It’s these rich people who are taking so much from us, who are inflating and gouging the prices at the grocery store, who are gouging the prices in healthcare. It’s very ridiculously and almost comically in our face how much they are doing to make us feel the weight and the pain of the struggling economy. And we’re just here to say that workers, people, students and everybody else can get together to fight back in the meantime.”

Analisa Valdez (she/her) is a freelance journalist based in Phoenix. Her reporting includes community & culture, social justice, arts, business, and politics.