Preparation underway as President Trump plans visit to view border wall prototypes
SAN DIEGO (KUSI) — Friends and foes of President Donald Trump alike plan to rally in San Diego Tuesday ahead of Trump’s expected visit to the border wall prototypes.
Trump will be traveling to Otay Mesa to view the 30-foot-high prototypes after he arrives at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar at 11:30 a.m.
Official details of Trump’s first visit to California since being elected have been scant. But hearing that he’ll travel by helicopter from the Miramar base to the border, the organizers of Women’s March San Diego announced plans to erect a large sign urging Trump to “build bridges, not walls” with the hope that he’ll be able to see it while landing at the nearby prototype site.
The largest planned anti-Trump protest is scheduled at a San Ysidro Catholic church that offers a full view of the nearby border. Scheduled to appear at Our Lady of Mount Carmel at noon are state Sen. Kevin de Leon, D-Los Angeles, Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez Fletcher, D-San Diego, and ACLU and labor leaders.
“Neither the United States, California, nor our local communities need this costly and divisive wall,” according to a statement from the ACLU of San Diego and Imperial Counties. “What we need is action to ensure DACA recipients and their families are safe from deportation.”
The hundreds expected at the San Ysidro rally will also hold up California immigration policies as ones that should be emulated on a national level — the same policies that have caught the ire of the Trump administration.
Trump’s visit comes after Attorney General Jeff Sessions last week sued California over three of its so-called sanctuary laws. Sessions said the laws, which restrict how local law enforcement can cooperate with federal immigration officials, are unconstitutional and undermine national security.
Sessions has also threatened obstruction of justice charges against Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf, who recently warned constituents of impending raids by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.
Vocal Trump critic Gov. Jerry Brown tried to find common ground with the president: In a Monday letter he invited Trump north to the Central Valley to tour the bridges and viaducts being built for the state’s high-speed rail line.
Despite the terse relationship between Trump and Golden State, Californians in support of the “big, beautiful wall” plan to come out in full force to welcome the president.
“The public has been expressing a strong desire to publicly show their overwhelming support for President Trump’s visit and his commitment to securing our border and homeland,” said Jeff Schwilk, Founder of San Diegans for Secure Borders.
That group is helping organize a rally with other conservative groups planned for 7425 Bristow Court in Otay Mesa beginning at 10 a.m.
Speakers set to appear at the rally include gubernatorial candidate and Assemblyman Travis Allen, R-Huntington Beach, Assemblywoman Melissa Melendez, R-Lake Elsinore, author and documentarian Trevor Loudon, and former Assemblyman Tim Donnelly.
According to the White House, Trump will speak to military personnel at Miramar at 2 p.m. before heading to the Los Angeles area for a Republican National Committee fundraiser.
