People across the country were protesting Thursday over a wide range of issues related to the Trump administration and its policies on immigration, federal job cuts, and more.
WATCH | Scripps News on the scene at a May Day protest in Washington, D.C.
The political activist organization 50501 helped coordinate the May Day rallies, in a national day of solidarity.
"Trump and his billionaire profiteers are trying to create a race to the bottom — on wages, on benefits, on dignity itself," 50501 wrote on its website. "This May Day, we are fighting back. We are demanding a country that puts our families over their fortunes—public schools over private profits, healthcare over hedge funds, prosperity over free market politics."
"They're defunding our schools, privatizing public services, attacking unions, and targeting immigrant families with fear and violence," the group added. "Working people build this nation and we know how to take care of each other. We won't back down — we will never stop fighting for our families and the rights and freedoms that propel opportunity and a better life for all Americans. Their time is up."
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One of the rallies in Washington D.C. drew hundreds — if not thousands — of people out to protest the Trump administration, with many holding signs that read things like "I Stand With Kilmar Abrego Garcia," "I'm for Medicaid," and "Tax Billionaires." One demonstrator told Scripps News the alleged threat to due process is what brought her to participate in the protest.
"If we don't have the rule of law, we have nothing," said Cate Rodman of Fairfax, Virginia. "And so Trump and all of his gang needs to be doing due process, you can't just throw people out of the country. And I would also like them to stop destroying our federal institutions. We need science back. That will take years and years to rectify and we are losing it."
The inspiration behind the May 1 protests stems from the 1971 May Day demonstrations in Washington, D.C. The days-long protests resulted in more than 12,000 arrests as anti-war activists sought to shut down the federal government and disrupt the Vietnam War effort.
