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Many in the Las Cruces community gathered Saturday, April 5, at Albert Johnson Park to participate in a nationwide protest organized by local grassroots organizations against President Trump’s recent executive orders and policy changes implemented by the Department of Government Efficiency.
The initial protesters who signed up in the morning to attend the event drew a larger crowd of Las Crucians who lined the sidewalks up and down North Main Street and occupied Albert Johnson Park and the front of City Hall. They carried signs, flags, noise makers and their dogs protesting against multiple controversial policy changes made by the Department of Government Efficiency or D.O.G.E. in what the Trump administration says is an effort to make government more efficient and save taxpayers money.
People had various reasons to attend, from protesting plans to cut funding to Medicare and Medicaid, workforce cuts in social security, mass deportation efforts, DEI cutbacks, LGBTQ+ rights, increasing tariffs, and the ongoing genocide in Gaza and the West Bank. One protestor, who would not give her name, said she was there because her husband is a veteran and she fears her family will be impacted by the cuts.
The Las Cruces protest was part of a nationwide HandsOff! movement organized locally by the Indivisible Las Cruces chapter. Indivisible is a grassroots coalition that formed in the wake of Trump’s 2016 election.
“Government is not a business; it's a service, and this is the grassroots effort that will hopefully end the insanity at the federal level. For example, the tariffs I guarantee these companies don’t move their business to the U.S.; there are 8 billion other people worldwide. We need them more than they need us. But that’s why I am here today, why everyone is out here today, to show that we will not give up our country that easily to Trump and his buddies. We will do this non-violently, we will do this through the courts and the ballot boxes,” said Mary Brannon, a member of the steering committee with Indivisible.
