Washington, July 14 (RHC)-- Hundreds of thousands of protesters gathered for rallies and vigils in different parts of the United States, Mexico, Australia and Costa Rica to demand U.S. President Donald Trump close the immigrant detention centers.

In the U.S., demonstrations took place in dozens of cities across the country, including El Paso (Texas), Miami (Florida), San Diego (California) and New York (New York).  In Washington D.C., human rights defenders, teachers, students, immigrants and workers gathered in Lafayette Square, near the White House, where they chanted slogans such as "Classes not cages."

"We are all Americans here.  We all came here to look for a better future and it is not criminal to come here to ask for asylum," Guatamala-born U.S. congresswoman Norma Torres stated.  She said that those responsible for the deaths on the southern border are the presidents of Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador, as well as the Trump administration, which she said is "criminalizing the simple asylum request."

"Children should not be in cages," Torres said, adding that "the separation of Central American families is a crime against humanity.  Close the concentration camps" and "children are not criminals" were read on colorful banners.

Ingrid, a Honduran woman who arrived in the U.S. six months ago, accompanied by her little ones, ages 4 and 6, narrated how she risked everything to enter this country.  Addressing President Donald Trump, she assured that "if he has children and a wife, he should have a little bit of heart" to understand that "one does not come to do evil things to this country." 

"I graduated in Computer Sciences at Columbia University, which I would not have been able to do in El Salvador," said Gerson Quinteros, a young Salvadoran who at nine years of age was also in a detention center waiting to be reunited with his mother, whom at that time he had not seen for a year and a half.