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Therese Patricia Okoumou, the 45-year-old woman arrested for scaling the State of Liberty on Wednesday, likely sought to take a stand against the Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” immigration policy that’s caused thousands of migrant children to be separated from their parents.
“She just kind of mentioned the kids in Texas. I guess the whole debate that’s going on about that,” NYPD spokesman, Officer Brian Glacken, told CNN. He added that Okoumou was being “a little combative” but then conceded and cooperated with authorities. It took almost four hours for police to finally get her down.
She belongs to the New York-based group Rise and Resist that was arrested for hanging a large banner reading “Abolish I.C.E.,” a jab at the federal agency that’s responsible for detaining and deporting immigrants. But the group said that Okoumou’s climb wasn’t part of their plan.
“No one in the group knew this was going to happen. We don’t know if she did it on the spur of the moment or if she had been planning it beforehand,” group member Jay Walker told The New York Daily News.
The group did release a statement offering its support for Okoumou, explaining that all along they were concerned for her safety and are now looking for legal representation for her.
Okoumou, a Congolese immigrant who lives in Staten Island, has been involved with activism before. She was reportedly arrested last year for injuring an officer while she was being apprehended during a protest outside of the Department of Labor and was also quoted at an anti-Trump protest outside Sen. Chuck Schumer’s (D-N.Y.) office.
A judge ruled last week that all families separated at the border must be reunited by the end of the month, but progress appears to be moving at a glacial pace.
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