Protests across the Southern Tier and Finger Lakes region joined nationwide rallies pushing back on federal funding cuts and the involvement of billionaire Elon Musk in the Trump administration.
The “Hands Off” rallies called on the administration to reverse decisions to cut funding to the department of education, public media, and health services.
Organizers told NPR over a thousand rallies took place on Saturday.
Protesters organized “Hands Off” rallies all over the region, including in Corning, Binghamton, Ithaca, Oneonta and Norwich.
‘All kinds of key services are being cut’
Demonstrators gathered in downtown Ithaca on Saturday for a rally. The Ithaca protest was organized by the Tompkins County chapter of Indivisible, a national progressive political group. They say thousands of people attended the demonstration.
Protesters expressed concern over cuts made by the Department of Governmental Efficiency, recent deportations of international student activists, and cuts to science funding, among other issues.
Attendee, Dr. Corinna Loeckenhoff is a researcher studying aging. She said the administration's Trump policies are hitting older adults hard.
“A lot of older adults in nursing homes are on Medicaid. Meals on Wheels, all kinds of key services are being cut. Social Security is under attack. People's 401Ks are being depleted as a result of the tariffs,” she said.
She added that critical research infrastructure and datasets are also under threat.
“They're preventing us from preparing for an older population, doing the research that will help us to help older people not just live longer but live healthier lives and be protective members of society,” Loeckenhoff said.
'Normal citizens called to action'
A crowd gathered at a "Hands Off" rally in downtown Corning. Attendees estimated that 600 to 700 people participated in the rally.
Corning City Council Member Jeffrey Clark was at the event.
I am rarely moved to protest,” said Clark. “I have only attended one other protest in my life, during [the] Trump 1.0 assault on science. The actions from Trump 2.0 are many, severe and in my view, tearing apart the values that define us as a nation. In my interactions with others at the event, it seems many were of a similar mindset—normal citizens called to action by extreme policies.”
‘A sense of community’
In Binghamton, a crowd gathered in Recreation Park and walked along Riverside Drive in the rain, waving signs and chanting. Linda Quilty, co-leader of Indivisible Binghamton, said anywhere from 600 to nearly 1,000 people showed up to the local rally.
“One of the reasons that we do the protests, not only to draw attention to the issues, is that it actually is therapeutic for all these people who are really pretty frantic right now,” Quilty said. “It really gives them a sense of community, to be with other people who feel the same way. People who care about other people, not just themselves.”
Indivisible Binghamton organized the local rally, though other activist groups, such as Citizen Action, were present as well. Quilty said most of the issues she heard from protesters included concerns over federal funding cuts to veterans services, Medicaid and the Department of Education.
“People see it as a party issue, but it really isn't,” she said. “I mean, when you have Medicaid cut, they're hitting people personally. That's not a party thing, that's personally what's happening to you, and people are going to be hit one after another.”
Quilty said since President Donald Trump took office, their local group has seen many more residents joining up. She said involvement in Indivisible Binghamton, which has operated for eight years as a reaction to Donanld Trump’s first presidential election, has grown in recent months from about 30 or 40 participants at meetings to over 100.
“Every day, we've got 10 to 15 people asking to join,” Quilty said. “I start out the meeting saying, ‘this is a support group here.’It feels good to be with other people, and people are grateful to that, and we're grateful to have them join us, because people united are going to make those differences.”