A number of communities across Greater Cincinnati held No Kings rallies Saturday.
Concerns about Trump's immigration policies and aggressive raids by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, his deployment of the National Guard in cities like Chicago and Los Angeles, cuts to health care funding and other issues were front of mind for attendees at rallies across the region.
Cincinnati
The Queen City's rally at Smale Riverfront Park Downtown featured a number of speakers, including Imam Ayman Soliman. The Egyptian immigrant and former Children's Hospital chaplain made national headlines when ICE arrested him after U.S. immigration officials revoked his asylum this summer. U.S. attorneys eventually dropped efforts to deport Soliman and reinstated his asylum status, citing errors in documents related to his case.
Soliman recently was freed after 73 days in Butler County. He told rallygoers his situation isn't unique and that he met many inmates on ICE detainers there who had to try to go about seeking asylum legally.
"I got to talk to, listen to the stories of many, many, many people firsthand," he said of his time in the Butler County Jail. "I can tell you for sure. The majority of the people there are not criminals, are not illegal."
Planned Parenthood CEO and former Democratic Ohio gubernatorial candidate Nan Whaley also gave remarks to the crowd, decrying Republican efforts to restrict abortion and to strip federal funding from Planned Parenthood for other services like health screenings.
"Thousands of people in our communities are losing access to critical, life-saving care," she said. "These attacks are cruel, they are calculated, and they're designed to make essential health care harder to get."
The rally also featured remarks from Dr. David Frankhauser. He participated in the famed freedom rides to fight segregation and secure voting rights for Black residents of the South in the early 1960s. Frankhauser drew parallels between that movement and the current protests against Trump.
"It's become our responsibility to demand protection of our constitution and refuse to let them take away our rights," he said. "This is where nonviolent resistance and nonviolent civil disobedience comes in."
Brookville, Indiana
Dozens of residents of Brookville and surrounding communities lined up on both sides of the street outside the Franklin County Courthouse, drawing both supportive honks and jeers from drivers passing by.
Health care worker Joel Mitchell was among them. Holding a modified yellow Gadsen flag that said "Don't Trump on Me," Mitchell said he found Trump's actions on immigration and other issues divisive. He pointed to his two young children, whom he brought with him, saying he was trying to teach them to be more accepting and tolerant.
Mitchell also had practical concerns about the administration's cuts to health care funding.
"Clients of mine are going to lose their insurance — and I'm going to lose my hours," he said. "This is my livelihood. That's a lot of why I'm upset."
Stephanie Murray of Brookville came to the rally wearing an inflatable frog costume. Those have popped up at a number of No Kings and other anti-Trump protests lately. Murray said she wore hers to inject some levity into the event.
Murray said she's upset about a number of Trump's policies, but aggressive immigration raids hit especially close to home for her.
"My son-in-law, his family is from Mexico. He's an American citizen, but there are people in his family who weren't as fortunate. When people are trying to do things the right way, come into the country the right way, it just makes me so, so sad as another human to see them treated with such disdain."
Oxford
A rally in Oxford lined two blocks along High Street. Musicians performed songs by Woodie Guthrie as the crowd cheered and held signs decrying Trump's policies on health care, immigration, and other issues.
Miami University student Ian Olsen said he was troubled by many of Trump's actions as president, including aggressive ICE raids.
"He wants to be a dictator, he's made no secret of that," he said. "That's why it's so important to get people out here, to show solidarity and that we know what our country's about. It's about empathy. It's about respect."
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