Protests Across the Country
Condemn Trump’s Anti-Muslim Ban

January 30, 2017 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

 

On Sunday, January 29, massive crowds rallied and marched in the streets of New York City and Boston and at airports from coast to coast, including Atlanta, Birmingham, Boise, Las Vegas, San Diego, Dallas, Detroit, Houston, Chicago, Cleveland, Los Angeles, Phoenix, and Washington, D.C., as outrage grows following Trump's sudden, vicious attack on immigrants and refugees from Muslim countries.

Tens of thousands of protesters flooded Battery Park in downtown Manhattan, New York City, before marching north to Foley Square. (See "Thousands Rally and March in Lower Manhattan: "No Hate, No Fear, Refugees Are Welcome Here" on this page.) In Boston, 20,000 protesters jammed into Copley Square to protest President Trump's actions. In Washington, D.C., thousands rallied in Lafayette Square, across from the White House. Five hundred protesters converged on Chicago's O'Hare Airport. In Cleveland, hundreds marched in and around Hopkins International Airport. They gathered outside the airport's upper-deck departure area, then marched through the ticketing plaza, down to baggage claim, went outside and circled around again. Someone recounted the story of a Cleveland Clinic internal medicine resident doctor, a citizen of Sudan, who had been returning to work after visiting family overseas when she was detained in a room for 10 hours in New York—and then forced to board a plane back to Saudi Arabia.

In Los Angeles, thousands of protesters converged on the airport. Demonstrators filled the lobby of the international terminal and called for the release of those behind held. The protesters spilled into the street outside the terminal, chanting "Let them in!" The director of immigrant rights for the ACLU in California announced the filing of habeas petitions on behalf of seven people who were detained at the L.A. airport on Saturday. They reported that people being held were "advised" by federal officials to waive or drop their application for admission and just leave the country "voluntarily"—or else face deportation, which would make it very difficult for them to return to the U.S. One of the signs and chants heard and seen at L.A. and elsewhere: "No fence, no walls, you build it up, we'll tear it down."

Washington, DC, march against the ban.

Los Angeles International Airport, Los Angeles, CA

New York City, tens of thousands march.

Portland International Airport, OR, January 29

McCarran Airport Las Vegas

Birmingham, Alabama

Detroit Metropolitan Airport, MI—29 degrees

Thousands Rally, March in Lower Manhattan:
“No Hate, No Fear, Refugees Are Welcome Here”

From a reader:

#NoBanNoWall! On Sunday afternoon, tens of thousands packed New York City’s Battery Park in Manhattan to angrily condemn Trump’s ban on refugees and immigrants from seven predominantly Muslim countries. This was the day after 2,000 people protested at JFK airport. The spirit: a defiant “No Hate, No Fear, Refugees Are Welcome Here! Say It Loud, Say It Clear, Refugees Are Welcome Here!”

Organizers, including the New York Immigration Coalition, National Immigration Law Center, and New York Civil Liberties Union-NYCLU, called on people not to lose momentum but to continue to protest until Trump’s “inhumane executive orders” were reversed and “human rights and dignity for refugees and immigrants” was ensured.

“Build a Wall, We’ll Tear it Down”/”No Trump, No KKK, No Fascist USA”

A massive, mostly youthful and very multinational and passionate march to Foley Square followed the rally. A young Jewish woman and a young Jewish man (carrying a sign: “Never Again Means Never Again—No Ban, No Wall”) both said one reason they were there was that what’s happening now reminded them of how Jews fleeing Hitler were blocked from entering the U.S. before World War 2. The young woman’s grandparents who were allowed entry survived; those who weren’t died in the Holocaust.

A young Yemeni woman described the anguish her family felt at the possibility they would not be able to bring their grandfather to the U.S. to escape the war now raging in Yemen. A Palestinian said, “We have to fight, we have to fight—otherwise they’ll kill one group off after another, one religion after another.” What brought one gay couple out? “My outrage at the singularly morally repugnant actions by our president,” and the fear gay people would be targeted. Which of Trump’s actions most outraged them? They (like others) had trouble naming one or two, and ended up with “all of them!” Two young women were chanting, “Build a Fence Around Mike Pence!” and said, “Mike Pence may be an even bigger threat to American women than Donald Trump; he threatens the most vulnerable women here and around the world.”

San Francisco. The crowd at San Francisco International Airport swelled to 1,000. Protesters spilled onto the road that circled the international terminal, briefly blocking access for cars attempting to get to the terminal. Credit RefuseFascism.org

Houston. News reports said between 3,000 and 4,000 people at the Discovery Green (downtown), most of whom then went to the international terminal at Bush Airport. Photo: Special to revcom.us

Eugene, Oregon. Thousands rally downtown. Photo: Special to revcom.us

Washington, DC. Thousands gather at the White House to protest the ban on immigrants. Credit @CollinRees

Seattle. About 3,000 protesters gathered at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport January 28 and continued protesting through early Sunday morning, the AP reports. Photo: AP

Thousands rally in Boston's Copley Square. Credit @NicholsUprising

Atlanta. Thousands of demonstrators streamed through Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport. Photo: Special to revcom.us

 

 

       

 

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