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Community called to act against immigration policy

SEATAC, Wash. — Protesters gathered outside Seattle's Federal Building to demand the Trump administration stop separating mothers from their children as they seek asylum.

Nearly 200 women who sought asylum in the United States at the U.S.- Mexico border are being held in the Federal Detention Center in SeaTac, most of them don't know where their children are.

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​"It violates our humanity, we have to stop it," said Leslie Brown, who helped organize the protest, "I will be working on this until it stops. This violates our Constitution, our international agreements, and it violates our Christian beliefs."

"Just the thought of these kids alone and scared and treated like criminals when all they're trying to do is be safer," said Alana Manly who took a bus from Olympia to join the protest, instead of sitting home and crying about the children and their mothers.

Jessica Goldman is a media attorney, who speaks Spanish. She and her husband, Adam Shapiro, are volunteering for the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project. She's met with five women in the last few days who are detained in SeaTac. Each one has a story of fleeing violence.

"The gang found her and told her they were going to kill her and they knew where she was and they were following her," said Goldman of a mother who left El Salvador with her young son.

She spoke to five distraught women, most of them do not know where their children are or who is taking care of them.

"She understands her children are very far from her," said Goldman of one woman she interviewed, "She thinks they're in Chicago. She had had no contact with her children for five or six weeks, since they were separated at the border."

Goldman said she wanted to offer comfort to the women.

"The human inclination for most Americans is to reach over and say 'It's going to be OK'. I didn't say that, I don't know if her kids will be OK, I don't know if she'll be OK." said Goldman.

Blanca Orantes-Lopez is locked up in SeaTac. She left El Salvador with her 8-year-old son Abel seeking asylum. She thinks he is in New York state.

She remembered what happened when ICE took him away weeks ago.

"They just told me to 'Say bye to him'. To this day I don't know where he went. He just started crying saying 'Don't leave me mom'. I just said 'It will be OK' that's alI I said," said Orantes-Lopez to The Associated Press.

Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan announced Tuesday she will head to the Mexico U.S. border in Texas to see the conditions, along with other mayors.

She leaves on Wednesday and will tour a federal shelter for separated migrant children in Tornillo, Texas, on Thursday.

A nationwide protest, "Keep Families Together," is planned for June 30.