PHILADELPHIA (AP) - Over two dozen senior citizens fenced themselves into a makeshift “detention center” on Philadelphia’s Independence Mall in the sweltering heat to call attention to the treatment of migrant children in U.S. custody.

The Philadelphia Inquirer reports the ElderWitness group set up the fencing on Wednesday between Independence Hall and the National Constitution Center. For over an hour, they called out names of children who’ve died in U.S. custody and held up their photos.

Seventy-year-old Rabbi Mordechai Liebling says the protest is personal.

He says his grandmother - a widow from Poland with four children - was turned down when she tried to come to the U.S. in the 1930s. All but his mother died in the Holocaust.

He says “had America allowed them to come, they would have all lived” and sees a parallel to the people fleeing Central America today.

___

Information from: The Philadelphia Inquirer, http://www.inquirer.com

Sign up for Daily Newsletters Manage Newsletters

Copyright © 2020 The Washington Times, LLC.