More than a dozen protesters lined North First Avenue at Market Square Jan. 20 to protest recent activity by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and other things happening within the Trump administration.
There have been persistent rumors of a federal detention center being put in Durant and the Choctaw Tribal Council passed a resolution opposing it. Durant City Council passed an ordinance requiring anyone wanting to open a detention center to obtain a conditional use permit that city officials said will give the city a say in the matter although the city does not have jurisdiction over what the federal government does.
The protest followed a meeting of the Bryan County Democrats and the Bryan County Federation of Democratic Women.
Dr. Jennettie Marshall, who is a candidate for State Superintendent of Public Instruction, spoke to the Democrats and attended the protest.
“I came to No. 1, fellowship and to bring information and to participate in this rally to see the people here actually demonstrate their voice and what they want in their community,” Marshall said. “I believe that the community needs to be heard. ICE has become a priority over education. We need to stop all of this detention, and we need to pay attention to making this community and communities just like it what it can and should be and that’s safe places and places where you can come and feel included.”
Chandler Hayes said he was protesting because of the injustice that he said is happening in the U.S.
“For me, I brought this which is my grandfather’s service flag,” Hayes said. “He passed before I was born. He served in tours for Korea and Vietnam and I know that he stood up for the common man as much as he did when he was fighting overseas for us for people that were dealing with many injustices here that he did disagree with, but he understood it because it was a part of the Constitution. I’m out here now supporting those in my family who aren’t available to protest today and to the hundreds of others that I’ve known across my eight years of living here in Durant.”
Robert Rawls said he was there for his grandchildren.
“I think that we have problems in our environment, within our education, especially in this state, and we need to make some changes, and I hope that what we’re doing here brings a little attention to that fact,” Rawls said. “It is a lot about the ICE center, but I don’t think most of us agree with the way the immigration thing is going. We’re not picking up all the criminals and all of that, we’re picking up everybody. We’re breaking up families and creating havoc where havoc doesn’t need to be.”
Dana Overton said the country is on the precipice of not having a democracy anymore and people need to be out there fighting every step of the way.
“We can’t allow this to continue,” Overton said. “We can’t allow making enemies of our allied nations. He is sending us off a cliff that we’ll never come back from.”
Asked about the possible detention center, Overton said, “I’m absolutely against it. There is no reason that we should be putting innocent people into a detention center. These people have been proven that 92 to 97 percent of them have no criminal history whatsoever and they’re being abused, beaten and tortured and I don’t want that in my backyard.”
