Immigration rights activists held a rally in Chicago over the weekend in protest against the White House deportation raids targeting Central American families.

Pro-immigration advocates gathered at Daley Plaza on Saturday before marching through the Loop, a central business district in Chicago, to denounce the raids being conducted by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to deport newly arrived immigrants who entered the country illegally. This month, the agency has apprehended 121 Central Americans across multiple states, causing a firestorm of backlash from Democratic leaders, reports The Guardian.

Nevertheless, the White House has publicly supported the raids, while the Department of Homeland Security announced that they may be expanded to include minors who entered the country without a guardian.

According to government officials, the raids are being used to deter immigrants from illegally crossing the border. However, immigration activists argue that many of the immigrants migrated to the U.S. in a desperate attempt to escape ongoing violence in El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras. As a result, sending them home would put their lives in jeopardy, they say.

"We are here because President Obama declared the war of terror against the immigrant community," said one speaker named Carlos at the rally, according to WBBM. "We are here because President Obama would rather deport three million people. He doesn't help enough. We are here because President Obama declared a war against Central American community," he added.

Carlos also took time to denounce 2016 Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump, who has promised to deport millions of undocumented immigrants and build a wall on the U.S.-Mexican border.

According to the Reverend Jose Landaverde, who helped organize the protest, the Obama administration and ICE should "focus on criminals" rather than harassing undocumented workers.

"Leave working families alone," he said. "They are just working to raise their children to give them a better life."

During the demonstration, speakers also promised to hold voter registeration drives and warned that they will organize a major immigration rights march in Chicago this spring.

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