Woman protesting immigration policy climbs base of the Statue of Liberty

Jennifer Peltz and Jake Pearson for the Associated Press report that a woman protesting U.S. immigration policy climbed the Statue of Liberty’s base and forced the monument’s evacuation on the Fourth of July hours.  Her arrest occurred  after several other demonstrators had hung a banner on the statue’s pedestal and had been arrested.

The climber engaged in a four-hour standoff with police before two officers climbed up to the base and went over to her. With the dramatic scene unfolding on live television, she and the officers edged carefully around the rim of the statue’s robes toward a ladder, and she climbed down and was taken into custody. 

A federal official says the woman told police she was protesting the separation of immigrant children from parents who unlawfully cross the U.S.-Mexico border.

KJ