Visitors had to be evacuated from the Statue of Liberty on Independence Day after a group of activists protesting against the US government’s immigration enforcement agency caused a disruption.
Several people hung a banner from the statue’s pedestal calling for the abolition of ICE. After they were arrested, another person managed to climb the monument’s base and stay there for over three hours.
The woman stopped at the bottom of the statue itself, laying and sitting under Lady Liberty’s half-raised right foot, some 100 feet (30m) above ground level. Police used ladders to climb up to the ledge and, after trying to talk her into coming down, proceeded to approach her and put a climbing harness on her to help her down.
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An organizer of Rise and Resist, the group behind the anti-ICE banner, said the woman was affiliated with the group, but her climb was not planned as a part of the protest, CNN reports.
New York police said three emergency units and a harbor unit were dispatched to apprehend the protester. She has been placed in police custody.
ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) is under massive fire from liberal activists for enforcing US President Donald Trump’s tough policies against illegal immigration. In particular, activists have protested against the practice of separating migrant children from their parents at the border and putting them in detention centers.
In late June, almost 600 protesters were detained after a sit-in at the Senate building in Washington, DC.
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