Just days after the White House opened the national mall for a rally to support illegal immigration, American war veterans who descended on the nation’s capital to protest the Obama administration’s shuttering of war memorials were met with police in riot gear.

The “Million Vet March” is aimed to take the administration to task for closing open-air memorials to America’s veterans in a move that has never been made before in government shutdowns.  The open-air memorials are usually not manned by the National Park Service, so it costs more to shutter them than to leave them open to the public.

The veterans stormed the memorials today and removed the barricades.  The barricades were carried a half-mile to the Pennsylvania Avenue gate of the White House and left them there with American flags hanging from them.

The response of the government was to send police in riot gear to confront the World War II veterans at their memorial and those who were marching toward the White House.

The morning began with a rally led by Sen. Ted Cruz and former Alaska governor Sarah Palin.  The crowd sang songs like “God bless America” and called for the government to stop their harassment of America’s war veterans by denying them access to memorials for the sacrifices of their brothers-in-arms.

“This is the people’s memorial,” Sen. Cruz told the crowd.

“In a mean-spirited fit of selfish anger, Barack Obama has shut down our nation’s war memorials,” march organizers said in a press release. “And he has declared open war on our honored veterans. The World War II memorial, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, the Korean War Veterans Memorial, Obama has shut them all down to force his will on the House of Representatives and, frankly, to get revenge on the American people who oppose ObamaCare and his other naked power grabs.”

Only one arrest was reported by mid-afternoon Sunday.