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Nearly 1,700 people gathered across Greater New Bedford Saturday to join millions of demonstrators across the country for the third round of “No Kings Day,” an organized day of protests aimed at President Donald Trump’s authoritarian tactics and his policies ranging from the economy to immigration to war.
Three demonstrations in New Bedford and another in Dartmouth were among the 12 that took place in Bristol County.
From the Route 18 pedestrian overpass to Buttonwood Park, to Faunce Corner Road in Dartmouth and a circuitous march from New Bedford District Court to City Hall, the demonstrators made their opposition to the policies of the second Trump administration known.
No single cause brought the thousands of demonstrators together, but signs and comments pointed to myriad motivations, including:
- Opposition to the four-week old war with Iran launched by the U.S. and Israel.
- Calls to defund and abolish U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement due to their aggressive tactics over the course of the president’s mass deportation campaign.
- Fears around the lack of due process offered to immigrants in removal proceedings and warrantless arrests carried out by ICE and other federal police agencies.
- Allegations of rampant corruption leveled against the federal government and administration officials.
- Fears around U.S. foreign policy and perceived movement away from historical allies such as the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and toward historical enemies like Russia.
- Changes to health policies under Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr., in particular an embrace of vaccine scepticism.
- Administration attempts to claw back federal grants funding science research at universities.
- Fears around policies that appear to seek retribution against Trump’s perceived enemies.
About 3,200 demonstrations occurred in the U.S. with all 50 states represented — from small towns to cosmopolitan metropolises — according to the No Kings website. In Massachusetts alone, 162 demonstrations were planned. Other cities and towns that saw demonstrations in Bristol County included Attleboro, Bridgewater, Fall River, Mansfield, Somerset, Swansea, Taunton, and Westport. In nearby Rhode Island, there were demonstrations in Barrington, East Greenwich, and Providence.
By far the largest demonstration in the state took place in Boston, where organizers said 100,000 people rallied on the Boston Common. Scheduled speakers included Gov. Maura Healey, Attorney General Andrea Campbell, U.S. Rep. Ayanna Pressley, and U.S. Sen. Ed Markey.
Highlights from that event included words from Marcelo Gomes Da Silva, a teenager from Brazil whose arrest by ICE agents in Milford last May made national headlines, and a musical performance by Dropkick Murphys, Irish-American punk rockers from Boston who have experienced a resurgence due to their vocal progressive and anti-MAGA politics.
Both Campbell and Healey focused on the state’s immigrant communities in their remarks on the Common, according to WBUR.
“In Massachusetts, we value our immigrants. All of them. We value their cultural contributions. We value their innovation. We value their art and so much more,” Campbell told the crowd. “And we know that without them, without our immigrant workers, this state, this country, would crumble economically.”
Crowds also protested against the Trump administration in about 16 countries around the globe including in cities such as Lisbon, Tokyo, Paris, Berlin, Munich, London, Rome and Sydney, Australia.
Vinny Lovegrove braved frigid temperatures to spread hope at the Route 18 pedestrian overpass early Saturday morning, using the winds to blow large bubbles over honking cars passing underneath.
Route 18
“The bubbles were exclusively for kids’ entertainment,” said Lovegrove, a member of the Toe Jam Puppet Band. “But people kept telling me they add a little bit of hope.
“I wasn’t very political before 2024,” he said.
Lovegrove was among the 100 demonstrators gathered at the overpass – the first of four different protests in the Greater New Bedford area – to proclaim their opposition to Trump and his policies.
Issues surrounding immigration dominated the concerns of the protesters above Route 18. There have been about 70 New Bedford area residents detained as part of the mass deportation campaign since Trump’s return to the White House in January 2025.
That’s one of the reasons Dan and Kate Cooney chose to travel to New Bedford from their home in Marion. They had participated in previous No Kings activities in the Wareham area.
“This is one of the centers of the immigration story,” Cooney said, referring to New Bedford’s history and the current moment. “So I thought we should be here.”
Kate Cooney’s reasons were more related to exhaustion.
“I’m just tired of the incompetence,” she said.
Christine LeJacq-Smith, of Indivisible SouthCoast New England, said the protests at the bridge will continue as they are viewed as accessible to those with disabilities and perhaps those with less protest experience.
“We’ve been out here for many bridge brigades,” she said. “This is convenient because it’s safe to protest here.”
Buttonwood Park
About 1,000 people rallied at Buttonwood Park carrying signs protesting issues ranging from aggressive tactics by ICE, mass deportations, arrests in courthouse, the Iran War and more.
But for 85-year old Edna Henderson of New Bedford, it represented a move away from her longheld seat on the sidelines of politics.
“This is my third ever protest,” she said, adding that she had participated in previous No Kings rallies locally. “I never had to do it until now.
“Before, the government was working for us,” she continued. “Now, it’s only out for itself.”
Unlike the Route 18 protest, New Bedford police maintained a relaxed presence of about a half-dozen officers.
There was no organized opposition to the demonstrators, with only some passing drivers shouting their disagreement.
“I’m here because we’re living under an authoritarian regime,” said Ricardo Rosa, a director with the Massachusetts Teachers Association. “We need to deepen and reclaim our democracy.”
Also among the demonstrators was Jeanne Plourde, a New Bedford resident who carried her friend, Kermit the Frog, on her back as the puppet displayed a “No Kings” sign. She said it harkened back to earlier protests in Portland, Oregon, where demonstrators dressed in animal costumes to mock federal authorities trying to suppress them.
“I hope that people will realize they’re empowered after seeing this,” Plourde said. “And that they will realize there are people who think like they do.”
Faunce Corner in Dartmouth
In Dartmouth, about 300 people gathered at the intersection of Route 6 and Faunce Corner Road at noon for a protest organized by the town’s Democratic Committee.
Jeanne Robinson, a member of the committee, said that protesting what is happening in the country and bringing attention to it is crucial.
“For the first time in my 78 years, I fear we’re losing our democracy,” Robinson said. No Kings Day, she continued, “represents that we’re a democracy — that way back in the 1700s, we did not want a king, and we don’t want one now.”
Wendy Lawton, co-leader of Indivisible SouthCoast New England, was in Dartmouth serving as a safety marshal. This was not the first protest she has helped with this year — and she is sure it won’t be the last.
“The country is still going in the wrong direction,” she said, pointing to a series of recent events that have intensified concerns, including the killing of protesters in Minnesota, the war in Iran and the capture of Venezuela’s president. “So if the concern is increasing, so do the number of protests,” she said.
Mark Fuller, a New Bedford resident, walked among the protesters holding a large upside-down American flag. He said he has received criticism from people who view displaying the flag that way as disrespectful, but Fuller said it carries a specific meaning he learned as a Boy Scout more than 50 years ago.
“It’s in the flag code that all military and Boy Scouts learn about the flag. A flag upside down is a show of dire distress or extreme danger to life or property,” Fuller said. “So it definitely has its meanings today.”
Paul Doran, a Dartmouth resident, held a “Veterans Against Trump” sign. A veteran and returned Peace Corps volunteer, he said his experiences have shaped his perspective on current events.
“I have a pretty broad grasp of the world, plus I have a degree in political science, so I studied a lot of the world, and I’ve lived in a lot of the world,” he said. “I can just see the mess that’s being made of our standing in the world, and I can’t stand it.”
Doran said it is a shame that many veterans continue to support the Trump administration. “We swore to uphold the Constitution as members of the military, and this whole gang that’s in power now cares nothing about upholding the Constitution.”
New Bedford District Court
A contingent of New Bedford police officers escorted about 400 protesters late in the afternoon, the rhythms of a Cabo Verdean batucada ensemble, Batucada Otu Level, marking time.
The demonstrators gathered at 3 p.m. one hour after the conclusion of the Buttonwood Park demonstration, in front of New Bedford District Court, a site of recent attention due to ICE civil arrests of immigrants at the facility.
“Every day, parents leave their homes with their hearts broken because they don’t know whether they will return home,” said Luísa Carina Cu Raymondo, a volunteer with Movimiento Cosecha and student at Bridgewater State University, who addressed the crowd in Spanish. “Our parks and our streets are silent because they have become violent and dangerous.”
“ICE has kidnapped and murdered men, women, and children,” she continued. “They break cars and break down doors without any legal processes, just because of your skin color. … We don’t want ICE in New Bedford!”
The demonstration was the third outside the courthouse. The first occurred on Feb. 5.
Another protest outside the courthouse occurred on March 19, shortly after reports that more than 600 immigrants had been detained by ICE in Massachusetts courthouses over the preceding years. Demonstrators there called on legislators and the governor to pass the PROTECT Act, a bill which would further limit law enforcement and trial court cooperation with ICE in Massachusetts, requiring that agents provide a signed judicial warrant to a judge at a state court before performing a civil immigration arrest. The bill passed the House 134-21 on Wednesday and now heads to the Senate.
The demonstrators then marched down Sixth Street to the Hastings Keith Federal Building next door. They passed two men standing in opposition to the protesters, one waving a large Trump flag and another with a “Make America Great Again” hat. They were the only two counter-protesters confirmed by The Light at any of the demonstrations and left before they could be interviewed.
At the federal building, Rosa, of the MTA and master of ceremonies for the event, called on municipal officials, including Mayor Jon Mitchell and members of the City Council, to speak up for the city’s immigrant community.
“We demand you choose the people over complacency,” he said in comments directed at the officials. “Stop treating our lives as expendable.
“Not taking a position is a position,” he continued. “You’re allowing for power to have its way.”
Dean Haleem, a public defender, also spoke to the importance of keeping ICE out of courtrooms and giving people their due process.
“We need to stand up against this,” he said.”
Also among the speakers was Tonianne Wong, a member of the First Unitarian Church of New Bedford, who spoke about assaults on LGBTQ+ rights across the country, including the abolition of the right to self-select gender on a passport in November 2025.
“Their goal is to create a world where everyone who exists beyond a rigid gender binary is erased,” she said.
Afterward, the demonstrators marched to the Frederick Douglass mural before ending the day’s events at New Bedford City Hall.
No Kings ‘history’
The organized protests were the third in the short history of the movement, which arose in opposition to President Donald Trump a few months after his return to the White House in January 2025.
Multiple towns in Bristol County have participated in all three protest days, with each round showing incremental growth in attendance.
The first No Kings protests, on June 14, attracted about 1,350 people combined to demonstrations at Hazelwood Park in New Bedford and along Route 6 outside Fairhaven High School. On Oct. 18, over 2,000 people attended demonstrations in Dartmouth, Fairhaven, Mattapoisett, and New Bedford.
Kevin G. Andrade can be contacted at kandrade@newbedfordlight.org. Eleonora Bianchi can be contacted at ebianchi@newbedfordlight.org.