SEATTLE — Tens of thousands across the country peacefully chanted, picketed and protested Monday against President Donald Trump’s immigration and labor policies on May Day, despite a small pocket of violent unrest in the Pacific Northwest.
Peaceful protesters flocked to the streets in Chicago. At the White House gates, they demanded “Donald Trump has got to go!”
But police shut down a protest in Portland, Oregon, that they said had become a riot, after marchers began throwing smoke bombs and other items at officers. Police said they made more than two dozen arrests as a group of anarchists wearing black bandanas and ski masks grew unruly, reportedly breaking windows at businesses, setting fires on downtown streets and damaging a police car.
Five people in Seattle were arrested, one for hurling a rock as pro- and anti-Trump demonstrators faced off.
In the Washington state capital of Olympia, police ordered protesters to disperse, calling them “members of a mob” as some threw bottles, used pepper spray and fired marbles from slingshots at officers. Objects struck nine officers and nine people were arrested, according to Olympia Police Chief Ronnie Roberts.
In Oakland, California, at least four were arrested after creating a human chain to block a county building where demonstrators demanded that county law enforcement refuse to collaborate with federal immigration agents.
Despite the West Coast clashes, most nationwide protests were peaceful as immigrants, union members and their allies staged a series of strikes, boycotts and marches to highlight the contributions of immigrants in the United States.
“It is sad to see that now being an immigrant is equivalent to almost being a criminal,” said Mary Quezada, a 58-year-old North Carolina woman who joined those marching on Washington.
She offered a pointed message to Trump: “Stop bullying immigrants.”
May 1 is International Workers’ Day and protesters from the Philippines to Paris celebrated by demanding better working conditions. But the widespread protests in the United States were aimed directly at the new president.
Trump, in his first 100 days, has intensified immigration enforcement, including executive orders for a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border and a ban on travelers from six predominantly Muslim countries.
In Chicago, 28-year-old Brenda Burciaga was among thousands of people who marched through the streets to push back against the new administration.
“Everyone deserves dignity,” said Burciaga, whose mother is set to be deported after living in the U.S. for about 20 years. “I hope at least they listen. We are hardworking people.”
In cities large and small, the protests intensified throughout the day.
Teachers working without contracts opened the day by picketing outside schools in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. Activists in Phoenix petitioned state legislators to support immigrant families.
Thousands of union members and activists marched in the shadow of some of the biggest resorts on the Las Vegas Strip, including a hotel that bears the president’s name.
In a Los Angeles park, several thousand people waved American flags and signs reading “love not hate.”
Selvin Martinez, an immigrant from Honduras with an American flag draped around his shoulders, took the day off from his job waxing casino floors to protest. “We hope to get to be respected as people, because we are not animals, we are human beings,” said Martinez, who moved to Los Angeles 14 years ago fleeing violence in his country.
The White House did not respond to requests for a response to the May Day demonstrations.
Several protesters, like 39-year-old Mario Quintero, outed themselves as being in the country illegally to help make their point.
“I’m an undocumented imigrant, so I suffer in my own experience with my family,” said Quintero at a Lansing, Michigan, rally. “That’s why I am here, to support not only myself but my entire community.”
In Miami, Alberto and Maribel Resendiz closed their juice bar, losing an estimated revenue of $3,000, to join a rally.
“This is the day where people can see how much we contribute,” said Alberto Resendiz, who previously worked as a migrant worker in fields as far away as Michigan. “This country will crumble down without us.”
He added, “We deserve a better treatment.”
In Providence, Rhode Island, about the same number of people gathered at Burnside Park before a two-hour protest that touched on deportation, profiling and wage theft.
In Oakland at a later march, more than 1,000 people marched peacefully representing labor groups along with Mexican, Vietnamese, Chinese, Filipino and other immigrants.
While union members traditionally march on May 1 for workers’ rights around the world, the day has become a rallying point for immigrants in the U.S. since massive demonstrations were held on the date in 2006 against a proposed immigration enforcement bill.
In recent years, immigrant rights protests shrank as groups diverged and shifted their focus on voter registration and lobbying. Larger crowds returned this year, prompted by Trump’s ascension to the presidency.
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Peoples reported from New York. AP writers Amy Taxin in Los Angeles, Jessica Gresko in Washington, D.C., Kristen De Groot in Philadelphia, Adriana Gomez Licon in Miami, Sophia Tareen in Chicago, Deepti Hajela in New York, Sarah Rankin in Richmond, Virginia, Lisa Adams in Charlotte, North Carolina, Gillian Flaccus in Portland, Oregon and Crystal Hill in Boston contributed to this report.