LOS ANGELES, June 26 (Xinhua) -- Twenty-five protesters were taken into custody Tuesday in downtown Los Angeles in the U.S. state of California for denouncing Washington's immigration policy and separation practices.

Hundreds of protesters gathered and marched through the streets in front of the Millennium Biltmore Hotel downtown, where the U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions was scheduled to deliver remarks to the Criminal Justice Foundation's annual luncheon.

Demonstrators in white clergy robes linked arms sitting across the street and chanted "reunite," while others waved signs that bore slogans such as "Stop caging families," "Stop separating families" and "Abolish ICE."

"Sessions, you're not welcome in our communities and your hatred is not welcome in our communities," said Jose Montez of Children Over Politics at the rally.

A large group of police arrived the scene and declared the peaceful demonstration an unlawful assembly. They arrested 25 people after a five-minute warning to disperse. There was no clash between the two sides.

The protest was organized by several immigrant rights groups and local Christian churches.

Sessions defended Trump's immigration policy at the luncheon, saying U.S. President Donald Trump had made it clear to avoid separating families, but the authority "is going to work to prosecute all of those adults who come here unlawfully."

The Trump administration's policy of separating children from immigrant parents caught crossing the border illegally triggered enormous political pressure and public outrage across the country and the world.

Even though the policy has ended, there remain more than 2,000 immigrant children in government-contracted shelters that were separated from their parents at the border.