Thousands of Mexicans marched on Sunday through the Mexican capital city to protest the migration and trade policies of U.S. President Donald Trump.

According to police, between 15,000 and 17,000 people participated in two separate marches which converged on the Angel of Independence monument.

"No wall, no wall," the demonstrators repeatedly chanted. Among the demonstrators were Mexican historian Enrique Krauze and the rector of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), Enrique Graue.

"This is not the moment to look to the past. It is the moment to look to the future and send a message that we need sovereignty, strength and equality with our neighboring country," Graue told the press during the march.

Many of the protesters dressed in white and carried Mexican flags, in a show of unity against Trump, who is seeking to build a border wall and renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement between the United States, Canada and Mexico.

Some of the activists made a wall out of cardboard boxes at a corner of the Angel of Independence monument as a sign of rejection of the border wall Trump believes will reinforce U.S. national security.

"This march might be coming a little late but better late than never," Mauricio de Maria y Campos, a researcher from the College of Mexico's Economic Studies Center, told Xinhua.

"The Mexican people are aggrieved by this racist attitude that was shown during the campaign and is being crystallized now when he (Trump) is president," he commented.

Campos, also former director general of the U.N. Industrial Development Organization, told Xinhua that policies such as the wall, mass repatriations or blocking all citizens of specific countries from entering the United States are in violation of universal human rights.

source: Xinhua