Norfolk CW Marks Inauguration by Protesting Deportation Policies
More than 15 people gathered outside the federal building in Norfolk on January 20 to protest the new administration’s immigration and asylum policies.
by Robert McCabe
NORFOLK, Va. — At an event that overlapped with inauguration ceremonies about 200 miles north, more than 15 people gathered in bitter cold on Monday near the Federal Building in downtown Norfolk to protest incoming President Donald Trump’s plans to begin deporting millions of unauthorized immigrants.
“As a Catholic who believes in respecting life, I have to come here,” said Kim Williams, who with her husband, Steve Baggarly, founded the Norfolk Catholic Worker, which organized the roughly hour-long demonstration.
“I have to speak out for immigrants who will face having their families torn apart and being sent to their death through a policy of mass deportation.”
There were about 11 million unauthorized immigrants nationwide in 2022, according to a 2024 Pew Research Center study, based on 2022 census data.
Of that number, 275,000 were in Virginia.
The three states with the largest unauthorized immigrant populations in 2022 were California (1.8 million); Texas (1.6 million) and Florida (1.2 million), according to the Pew study.
While the focus of the event in Norfolk was on the injustice of mass deportation of immigrants, it underscored how antithetical such plans are to the teachings of Martin Luther King Jr., on the occasion of the federal holiday in his honor.
Laura Bugeja, a retired nurse, brought her mother, whom she pushed in a wheelchair.
“I am just appalled,” said Pat Bugeja, 84. “This country was built by immigrants.”
Her daughter, Laura, said the timing of the holiday protest attracted her.
“I especially like that this was scheduled during the inauguration of our incoming oligarchy,” she said, adding that its priority will be “to serve the needs of the exceptionally wealthy as opposed to the immigrants and the homeless and the poor among us.”
Williams noted that her husband’s grandparents came from Eastern Europe to the United States through New York’s Ellis Island.
“Now there is no Ellis Island,” she said.
“There’s no place for people from the Global South to enter when they are fleeing war, fleeing the threat of violence against their person, against their family members, when they’re fleeing outrageous poverty. There is no port of entry for them.”
Cover photo by Robert McCabe. McCabe is a former reporter for The Virginian-Pilot.
