Thousands of Houstonians furious about President Donald Trump’s aggressive immigration policies and funding cuts to education and healthcare, showed up for the No Kings protest at Houston City Hall Saturday. They marched and shouted but there was no violence.
Houston’s No Kings protest was one of more than 2,000 demonstrations across the country. It was promoted as a nationwide day of defiance and the rejection of authoritarianism. The No Kings protests coincided with a $45 million Washington, D.C. military parade along with a celebration of Flag Day and President Donald Trump’s birthday.
There were no tanks in the streets or National Guard troops, but Houston police and event security officers monitored the protest as marchers walked around city hall. Shouts of “F— Trump” were about as raucous as it got, and attendees were seen handing each other cold washcloths and bottled water, encouraging fellow marchers to take care of themselves and visit a medical tent if needed to get away from the crowd.
One speaker during a brief program before the march asked attendees to pause for a silent moment of meditation.
Aileen North and Deborah Davis waved American flags and held signs that read, “Not My Prez, Not My King.” The senior citizens said they wanted to join the chorus of resistance against the Republican president and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott.
“I’m tired of the Constitution being stomped on,” North said. “I posted on Facebook the other day that while I was weeding my flower bed, I had the epiphany that 47 was like weeds — they were everywhere and wanted to take control over everything.”
While some Trump supporters were on social media this weekend saying the protests wouldn’t make a difference, Davis said she disagreed.
“I have nothing else but my voice,” she said. “I have to make a statement, and it’s my right.”
Mayor John Whitmire, several Houston City Council members, U.S. Reps. Sylvia Garcia and Al Green, Texas Sen. Molly Cook, and Texas Reps. Jolanda Jones and Gene Wu attended and fired up the Houston crowd before they marched down McKinney Street.
Garcia referred to Trump as “the Robin Hood from hell.”
“He’s taking from the poor to give to the billionaires,” she said. “For this felon in the White House to think that he can stop our freedom of speech, he’s just dead wrong. Y’all need to keep fighting and protect that flag and everything that it means. Remember the last words: Liberty and justice for all.”
Many of the Houston protesters opposed what they say is Trump’s authoritarian tactic of deporting undocumented immigrants via surprise ICE raids rather than detaining people who are illegally crossing the border. At Saturday’s protest, there was also a strong presence from Veterans Against Trump, the LGBTQ+ community and the Houston Federation of Teachers.
“This moment demands courage,” Senator Cook said. “You link arms with your brothers and your sisters, whether they are immigrants, whether they are trans, whether they are poor. We move together as a team. None of us are kings either.
“Every move we make, you put your neighbors in front of you. You put yourself between ICE and your neighbors. You trust the effective community members who have been at the forefront of this movement and you lead with courage and discipline.”
The rallies come about a week after riots took over Los Angeles streets and Trump mobilized thousands of National Guard troops and Marines to the city against the wishes of California Gov. Gavin Newsom.
In Texas, Gov. Greg Abbott indicated his support of Trump’s use of military force at the protests, deploying 5,000 Texas National Guard members and 2,000 Department of Public Safety troopers to demonstrations across the Lone Star State.
Many protesters were talking at the Houston rally about news that Minnesota Rep. Melissa Hortman, a Democrat, and her husband were shot and killed in a “politically motivated assassination” Saturday morning. Another Minnesota state representative and his wife were shot multiple times but appear to have survived.
Sen. Alex Padilla, a California Democrat, was forcibly removed from a Department of Homeland Security press conference earlier this week. Padilla has said he was there for a scheduled briefing and had a question; Secretary Kristi Noem, who hosted the event, said he lunged at the podium and didn’t identify himself.
All the mayhem is terrifying, said Maria, an attendee at Houston’s protest who asked that her last name not be used.
“We want to stand together and say we will not be oppressed but we don’t know what [Trump] is going to do next,” she said. “If we make noise, he retaliates. If he doesn’t like you, he removes you from this country. People are getting arrested, tackled, and killed for speaking out against Trump. It’s scary. It’s terrifying.”
Officials with the AFL-CIO spoke at the protest, adding their concerns about laborers who are being deported. Others spoke about rights being removed from the trans community and funding being stripped from programs that help the poor.
“It’s not just about the ICE raids,” Representative Wu said. “It’s not just about the loss of due process. Why I’m pissed off is because for the last half-century our government has spent its time stripping away everything that makes us great. Education, healthcare, infrastructure, everything is being stripped away piece by piece. We’ve given it up to the billionaires.
“All of us are here because we’re looking around and saying why do I work so hard and suffer so much?” he added. “The reason why that’s important is because then we look for someone to blame. Whether it’s immigrants or trans kids or Muslims or any other group that is having its neck stepped on by Donald Trump and Republicans, it doesn’t matter, we need to fight.”
No Kings Day is backed by the progressive organization Indivisible, founded by Ezra Levin and his wife Leah Greenberg, who were once named among Time’s 100 most influential people in the world. They’ve also been described as radical leftists.
“We are here today to tell Donald Trump that we are not going to bow to fascism,” said Kristi Pham of 50501 Houston. “We are not going to bow to authoritarianism. We are not going to bow to human rights violations. We are here today to stand together.”
