About 30 people gathered across the street from the Trump International hotel on Wednesday to protest President Donald Trump’s immigration policies. Participants said they initially saw plans for the event advertised on a now-deleted TikTok video.
The protesters stood near an entrance to Nordstrom at the Fashion Show mall that faces the hotel.
Some waved signs that read “Billionaires have got to go” and “No one is illegal on stolen land” as they cheered for a Cadillac Escalade that flew a Mexican flag from its roof.
At the median crosswalk between the mall and the hotel, a couple of officers with the Metropolitan Police Department watched them. Half a dozen police vehicles sat parked at the perimeter of the properties, flashing red and blue lights.
“Our goal is to provide awareness here,” protester Dabrya Edeza said. “All people deserve rights. Being an immigrant does not make you a criminal. Donald Trump is at the root of all this hatred and division.”
Edeza, 21, said she was a student at UNLV and had been at the protest for about four hours. When asked when the protest would conclude, she said she would leave when everyone else did.
Like many of the protesters, neither Karen Pena, 14, nor Yareli Nunoz, 15, knew who organized the event, they said.
Instead, a flyer that was shared on TikTok persuaded them to come out after school. When the girls tried to show the post to a Review-Journal reporter that night, they realized it had since been deleted.
Some protesters shouted at people who crossed the street and appeared to be leaving the Trump International.
The Trump Organization, which represents Trump hotels nationally, could not be reached for comment.
Contact Akiya Dillon at adillon@reviewjournal.com.