Immigrant rights activists are planning to build a wall not along the U.S.-Mexico border like Donald Trump wants to do, but around the arena in Cleveland where the Republican National Convention is being held.
Activists plan to try to surround the Quicken Loans Arena Wednesday morning with a wall they constructed using fabric that stretches about 1,500 feet in length. Murals of bricks, wire fencing and barbed wire were painted on the fabric to make it look like a border wall.
Echoing Trump’s messaging, activists say the fabric wall is “going to be best wall you’ve ever seen” and that Mexicans helped pay for it. They say a portion of the more than $16,000 raised through a crowdfunding campaign to cover the costs of making the fabric wall came from people in Mexico.
Activists say their intent is to protest Trump’s rhetoric on immigration and his promise to build a wall along the U.S. border with Mexico.
“For us, one of the people who has put a spotlight on the immigration rhetoric that we’re seeing during this election and has really become a threat to our communities is the Republican candidate Trump,” said Tania Unzueta, an organizer with Mijente in Action, which runs the #Not1More campaign.
Mijente in Action is organizing the “wall off Trump” protest along with several other groups, including the Ruckus Society, which is a nonprofit organization that provides activists and organizers with non-violent direct action training.
Unzueta said participants aren’t currently planning to use the fabric wall to block the entrance to GOP convention. She added that she’s aware that security will be tight but that she and others “plan to be very peaceful.”