‘This is a moment in history:’ Hundreds protest Trump administration at Yorkville rally

As a veteran with PTSD, Adam McCall is concerned about how any veterans cuts by the Trump administration will affect him.

“My benefits are getting taken away,” said McCall, who was among hundreds of people participating in a Hands Off! protest in Yorkville on April 19. “They’re firing people left and right and they’re taking jobs away, which is making it harder for me to get an appointment. To get a medical appointment, it’s 45 days or more now. And so it’s making it harder for me to get care. And I have severe PTSD from combat.”

McCall and his wife last August bought a house in Yorkville. The Hands Off! protests have been held nationwide since April 5.

Those involved in the Hands Off! protest in Yorkville lined up along both sides of Bridge Street in front of the Yorkville Town Square. Chris Kratsch was walking around with a sign that said “Fork Fascists.”

He voiced his displeasure regarding the deportation measures of the Trump administration.

“Undocumented immigrants, undocumented people are less likely to commit crimes in the U.S. because they don’t want to get sent back,” Kratsch said. “Everyone in the federal government right now, at the highest levels, is the exact wrong person to be there. And they’re doing not just things that are ineffective or bad, they’re doing things that are historically wrong. This is a moment in history. This is going to go down like Executive Order 9066. This is going to go down like Trail of Tears. This is going to go down like all that stuff.”

Issued by President Franklin Roosevelt on Feb. 19, 1942, Executive Order 9066 authorized the forced removal of all persons deemed a threat to national security from the West Coast to “relocation centers” further inland – resulting in the incarceration of Japanese Americans.

The Trail of Tears was the forced relocation during the 1830s of Indigenous peoples of the Southeast region of the U.S. (including the Cherokee, Creek, Chickasaw, Choctaw, and Seminole, among others) to the so-called Indian Territory west of the Mississippi River.

Oswego Village President Ryan Kauffman also participated in the protest.

“I’m concerned about the overturning of Roe,” he said. “I think a woman’s right to choose what she does with her body is her choice. I want to come out and support people’s First Amendment right to free speech, the right to protest, the right to petition the government for redress of grievances, which is enshrined in our Constitution.”

The U.S. Supreme Court in 2022 reversed Roe v. Wade, declaring that the constitutional right to abortion no longer exists. There have been concerns that decision could lead to a nationwide abortion ban.

Given that the event was held during Easter weekend, he was impressed with the turnout.

“This far exceeds anything I was thinking,” Kauffman said. “I figured it would be just a handful of people.”

Yorkville resident Suzanne Waldrop was holding a “Protect our Constitution – Dump Trump" sign. Her father was a naturalized American citizen who fought in World War II as a member of the Royal Canadian Air Force.

“He insisted that we learn about what brought Hitler into power,” Waldrop said.