Alwaght- Security forces have arrested nearly 600 women at the US Capitol Thursday while protesting against President Donald Trump's hardline immigration policy.
Many were draped in foil sheets similar to those used as blankets by undocumented children being held in large chain-link cages at detention centers after they were separated from their parents by the Trump administration. Video and pictures of their conditions further stirred outrage against Trump, eventually forcing him to end the practice.
But questions remain about how the administration is going to reunite the thousands of families it tore apart. In all, about 2,300 children were removed from their parents.
Democratic Representative Pramila Jayapal was among those detained during the sit-in protest Thursday afternoon.
"I was just arrested with 500+ women and @WomensMarch to say @RealDonaldTrump’s cruel zero-tolerance policy will not continue. Not in our country. Not in our name," she wrote on Twitter alongside a video message she posted shortly after being released from custody.
Senator Tammy Duckworth also participated in the demonstration with her newborn child, later saying on the microblogging site that she was "proud" to join the mass demonstration.
Following distressing scenes at the US-Mexico border that have been condemned across the country and internationally, more than 500 protesters took to the streets and gathered outside a Department of Justice building in Washington to voice their anger.
Police confirmed that 575 people had been arrested and charged with unlawfully demonstrating during the rally, which featured anti-Trump chanting and banners sporting the hashtag #FamiliesBelongTogether.
The protest in Washington was one of a number to have taken place in recent days, with dozens of people having taken part in rallies in other states, including Florida and Texas.
Earlier this week, New York and California were among 17 states to sue the Trump administration in a bid to force thousands of the immigrant children to be reunited with their parents.
The Justice Department has also gone to court over the crisis in an attempt to overturn a decades-old settlement that limits the amount of time migrant children can be locked up with their families to 20 days.
The crisis has dragged on despite the president partly backtracking over the policy and signing an executive order to stop separations, which prompted confusion among officials then tasked with reuniting youngsters who had already been detained away from their families.
Despite making the directive, Trump has insisted he will maintain a hardline approach to immigration, despite widespread opposition across the US.
