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DACA supporters clash with Trump supporters in Downtown LA

Published  September 11, 2017 6:20am PDT
News
FOX 11 Los Angeles

LOS ANGELES, Calif. (FOX 11) - Thousands of immigrants rights activists marched through the streets of Downtown Los Angeles on Sunday to speak out against President Trump's decision to phase out DACA over the next six months.

A small group of Trump supporters organized a counter protest, and there were some brief verbal clashes.

Around 5,000 DACA supporters held a rally at MacArthur Park, then matched to Echo Park, and ultimately ended up at Olvera Street where another rally was held.

Both sides told FOX 11 they believe they have the moral high ground.

"I'm here to support all my DACA students. I'm a teacher at UC Irvine, and I'm here to protect my students. I promised that I would be here for them and stand along with them," said Martin Jacinto.

"I support our president rescinding DACA, and that the world needs to know there are Trump supported in LA who are not afraid to be out here and proud of our president," said Arthur Schaper, a Trump supporter.

Some DACA supporters accused the Trump supporters of being bigots.

"They're racist. It's all they want, there's no financial reasons for it. It's gonna cost over $400 billion over 10 years to end DACA. There's no reason. There's no national security reasons,it's just racism," said Sabrina Mora.

But the Trump supporters told FOX 11 they're tired of the race card being pulled.

"I tell them, 'do I look like a racist,'" said Harim Uzziel. "Do I look like a KKK or a white supremacist? Far from it. I have Mexican heritage, and Spanish heritage and indigenous heritage which I'm very proud of, but I'm an American first."

"We have white, Asian, black, Hispanic, what else could we do? They're gonna keep playing the race card no matter what we do, we don't care," Shaper said.

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