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Central Florida Public Media

Protesters upset with federal, state policies gather in Lake Eola Park

By Luis-Alfredo Garcia

January 30, 2025 at 12:24 PM EST

Protestors upset with President Donald Trump’s executive orders and the Florida Legislature’s special session took to downtown Orlando’s Lake Eola Park Wednesday afternoon.

More than 150 people gathered to demonstrate their displeasure with President Trump’s executive orders on mass deportations, restriction to gender-affirming care and stance on abortion. They also shared exasperation with Florida’s actions on the same matters.

Most of the crowd called Central Florida home. The group’s organizer, 20-year-old Brianna Larson, grew up in Seminole County. She invited people to join under the umbrella term “We March.” Posters promised a protest opposing mass deportations and speaking up for LGBTQ+ rights, women’s rights and “freedom.”

She signed a free speech permit with the City of Orlando for the event.

Larson, who is Mexican American, says the scope of grievances was wide ranging to bring different groups together to find community in each other.

“Everybody’s just tired. I wanted to give people an opportunity to be heard and know their experiences are seen,” Larson said.

At the forefront of the chants, stories and signs were concerns over President Trump’s executive orders on deportation. One of these orders calls for the removal of people in the United States without legal status. Another revokes birthright citizenship for children of non-citizens in an effort to minimize undocumented immigration.

The President also put an end to a policy that prevented federal agents from making immigration arrests at locations like schools, churches and hospitals.

Larson said the concept of U.S. Immigration and Customs enforcement officers approaching any students in her home school district was the push needed to organize the demonstration.

About an hour into the protest, President Trump announced the United States was readying Guantanamo Bay for up to 30,000 detained immigrants at the signing of the Laken Riley Act.

Many in the group expressed concern for family members and themselves – even if they were in the country legally. Their concerns for legal immigration are partly rooted in Project 2025, a document of policy proposals published by think tank The Heritage Foundation. Protestors say it is a playbook of policies meant to revamp the government under a conservative president taking office in 2025.

President Trump has publicly distanced himself from the project and said “some of the things they’re saying are absolutely ridiculous and abysmal” on his social media app, Truth Social.

Recently reelected Florida Democratic Party leader Nikki Fried said that Florida has acted as a test site for Project 2025 in an interview with WLRN.

29-year-old Rachel Lowe is a retired U.S. Navy veteran. Her husband is half-Arabic and a U.S. citizen by birthright. Her parents-in-law recently gained their citizenship. Lowe drove from Fort Pierce to join the protest.

She said she’s more scared of the rhetoric and judgement that may impact her family than any threat of them being deported.

“Back in 2001 after the towers were hit, there was a lot of hate toward people with Arabic descent,” she said. “I worry that that’ll start up again.”

A spotlight is on the Trump administration’s actions meant to tackle immigration at the U.S. southern border, but orders that affect birthright citizenship, the detention of illegal immigrants and refugee admissions – along with potential public perception – add to her fear.

Lowe extended her lament to the LGBTQ+ community and women’s abortion rights, and she said she does not believe the current administration’s actions represent the country she served for in the Navy.

“I signed up to serve everybody, and to fight for everybody. Not some people. Not certain people,” Lowe said.

In the backdrop of the Orlando protest's grievances with immigration at the federal level is the fight happening at the state level. Florida lawmakers this week held a special session on immigration and passed what’s been dubbed the TRUMP Act. Gov. Ron DeSantis indicated he would veto the immigration bill, calling it weak. The governor’s potential veto has left the bill, representatives and Floridians in limbo.

DeSantis, in addition to Trump, was a key figure in chants throughout the afternoon protest.

“Hey, hey! Ho, ho! Our government has got to go,” the group chanted in the northeast corner of Lake Eola Park.

20-year-old Brianna Larson addresses her fellow protestors. "Haven't we already fought this war?" (2573x1817, AR: 1.4160704457897633)

Cloaked in the flag of Mexico, Larson was one of several who addressed her fellow advocates about the look ahead:

“I will speak for myself, my people in Mexico and every other so-called immigrant out there,” she said. “We are all people, and we all bleed the same color.”