A Sudanese mother who adopted five orphans from her war-torn country and a veteran of Boston's busing crisis stood alongside U.S. Sen. Ed Markey and Congressman Joe Kennedy III on Tuesday as they pledged to confront the president's immigration agenda and other Trump administration actions.

With Congress in recess, the Democrats spoke at a Downtown Crossing locale nearby pivotal spots where Bay Staters rejected the British yoke, undermined the federal Fugitive Slave Act and enshrined marriage equality into law - a geographical fact referenced by the state's junior senator.

Standing steps from a monument commemorating the Irish Famine, which spurred migration from the island nation to Boston, Markey noted the proximity of other sites of historical significance as he urged the crowd to "fight" the agenda of President Donald Trump.

"It was here just three blocks away that the American Revolution began, rising up against tyranny, against discrimination," Markey claimed. Speaking to reporters after his speech, Markey endorsed emulating "peaceful revolutions" that came about through public activism.

Trump's plan for a wall on the southern border would not reduce illegal immigration, according to Markey, who said cooperation with the Mexican government and immigrant communities in the U.S. would be a better approach.

Tuesday's rally occurred after reports that the Department of Homeland Security would target for deportation a broader swath of the immigrants who are in the country illegally.

Kennedy said the new Trump administration policy "targets children the same way it targets hardened criminals."

The president has said he took action to protect the public from terrorism, and he wants to build a wall to help enforce existing laws barring unauthorized entry into the country.

Non-politicians who joined the speaking program told personal stories about their struggles with ethnic strife.
Sadia Mohamed, a Chelsea resident who is the mother of six, including five orphans she adopted, told reporters she came to the United States in 2008 from the Darfur region of Sudan, the scene of what is widely recognized as a genocide perpetrated by government-backed forces.

Sudan was among seven Muslim-majority countries that Trump targeted in a controversial executive order barring travel by non-citizens to the United States. The order was subsequently blocked by federal courts. Mohamed is a naturalized citizen who works at Logan Airport as a wheelchair assistant, according to a spokesman for 32BJ SEIU, a union working to organize airport workers. Four of Mohamed's children are also citizens, one has a green card and another is in the process of obtaining a green card, according to the union.

"Maybe they will send them back," Mohamed told the News Service. She said, "They are worried...It's really going to be tough for us."

Kathleen Paul, who is a member of the Massachusetts Senior Action Council, recalled riding to school with her children during the court-ordered de-segregation of Boston schools decades ago when they were met by "mobs of angry people shouting nasty names to small children."

"It was a very bad time in our history, but we persisted," Paul told the crowd. Referring without specificity to people in the nation's capital, Paul said, "They think we will turn against each other, fighting over the scraps that they throw our way, but we see them. We see what they are doing, and we will not be divided."

To persist - a verb that gained new political undertones when the Republican-led Senate blocked U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren from speaking during debate over Attorney General Jeff Sessions' confirmation - was a buzzword at Tuesday's rally.

"Massachusetts will persist, but when necessary we will resist, and we will be a special place," Markey said.

Boston Mayor Marty Walsh in January offered to make City Hall a safe haven for undocumented immigrants should he deem it necessary, protecting them from federal agents.

Boston City Councillor Tito Jackson, who is challenging Walsh in his upcoming re-election bid, attended the rally as well, though he was not part of the speaking program.

Asked about the mayor's offering of City Hall as a refuge, Jackson told reporters, "We should stand on the right side of history when it comes to that. The question is, is he going to deploy law enforcement to ensure that that occurs? And I think we need to be strong on that."