Immediately After Supreme Court Decision:

People Raise Their Voices and Get Out Into the Streets to Protest the Muslim Ban

June 26, 2018 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

 

Protests against the Supreme Court decision to uphold the Trump/Pence regime’s hated racist “Travel Ban” (i.e., the Muslim Ban) started as soon as the decision was announced on the morning of Tuesday, June 26. (See here on what the decision means.)

From thousands marching through New York City, to dozens in Detroit, Muslims, Japanese-Americans, Christian clergy, and many others took to the streets in dozens of cities around the U.S., in some cases merging with protests against the imprisonment of Latino children on the U.S. southern border and ICE centers across the U.S.

Many people were deeply hurt and profoundly shaken by the decision, including people whose families are now ripped apart, and people who see this decision as a major part of broader and very ominous developments. But the protests were marked by sober determination to do what it takes to resist and defeat the ban and the white supremacist agenda it is part of.

Here are initial reports on today’s protests. Protests were also scheduled in Raleigh, North Carolina; Anaheim, Los Angeles, Sacramento, San Diego and San Jose, California; Baltimore, Maryland; Birmingham, Alabama; Chicago, Illinois; Dallas and Houston, Texas; Milwaukee, Wisconsin; Nashville, Tennessee; St. Louis, Missouri; Plainfield, New Jersey. And many more are planned for the days to come.

New York: Hundreds crowded Foley Park across from the Federal Courthouse in Manhattan chanting “No Ban, No Wall.” The crowd included many whose families are now indefinitely ripped apart by the Supreme Court ruling. A Yemeni woman who has been trying for four years to get her sons out of that war-ravaged country told the Boston Herald, “Today we were broken.”

The crowd grew to thousands and took off on a march to Battery Park in the Wall Street area, with signs reading “No ban, no wall, no raids, NY is for all,” and chanting “Muslims are welcome here” and "No ban, no wall, the Trump regime has got to fall!" A 70-year-old woman told AM NY “I think right now Trump is winning in his racist struggle against immigrants, and we’re all going to have to resist very hard.”

Washington DC: Several hundred people chanted “No Ban, No Wall” on the steps of the Supreme Court. The group Muslim Advocates was joined by members of the Japanese American Citizens League (JACL), who see the ugly history of people of Japanese descent being put in internment camps during WW2 being repeated. A freelance journalist tweeted. “Overturning Korematsu [1944 Supreme Court decision approving the internment camps] to uphold a Muslim ban is a vile insult to the Japanese Americans who were interned during WWII. I miss my grandparents every single day. But we're relieved that they aren't alive to see this monstrous decision.”

Seattle: Muslim groups held a press conference at a public library, joined by a diverse crowd of about 100 people. They marched down the street chanting “No Muslim Ban, No Wall.” Several speakers compared today’s ruling to the 1944 Korematsu decision.

Atlanta: Rev. Raphael Warnock, the pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church (which Martin Luther King Jr. led) and other clergy of many faiths gathered outside Ebenezer in protest. Rev. Warnock declared: “The Supreme Court's decision today was not only an injustice committed against our Muslim sisters and brothers, it's a threat to justice everywhere.”

San Francisco: City officials held a rally on the steps of City Hall; many protesters had signs reading “No Ban, No Wall, Sanctuary for All.”

Minneapolis: Hundreds of demonstrators rallied outside the federal courthouse. Protesters held signs reading “Demand an end to anti-Muslim bigotry” and “No Muslim ban ever.” At one point the crowd chanted, "The Muslim ban will not stand."

Detroit: Over 50 people from several Muslim groups as well as supporters rallied at Campus Martius Park.

Portland, Maine: A #WeStandWithMuslims rally of 100 on the steps of Portland City Hall opened with 30 minutes of silence… and then at the urging of the local pastor leading it, people began to speak bitterly about the SCOTUS decision. A minister said: “The travel ban is based on a white nationalist racist agenda. This rally shows that Portland is a city that embraces people from all over the world regardless of their religious beliefs or their place of birth.”

Statement from Amnesty International: “This hateful policy is a catastrophe all around—not only for those who simply want to travel, work, or study here in the States, but for those seeking safety from violence as well. While this decision doesn’t address the separate and equally harmful ban on refugees, it cruelly traps people in conflict-afflicted countries and prevents them from seeking safety in the U.S. or being reunited with family. Some of the people banned from this policy are fleeing conflicts that the United States has had a direct hand in creating or perpetuating, as is the case in Yemen and Syria. In those cases especially we are essentially lighting a house on fire and locking the escape door shut. This ban, and the anti-Muslim sentiment in which it originated, has no place in a country that claims to value human rights.” (Emphasis in original)

 

New York City, Refuse Fascism marched with others.

Revolution Club at the march in NYC, June 26

Richmond, California

Minnesota, June 26, march against the Muslim ban (Photo: Twitter/@iawmusse)

Seattle, WA, June 26. Protests against the Muslim ban and against separation and deportation of immigrant families converge. (Photo: Twitter)

Raleigh, NC, June 26.

Los Angeles, CA, June 26. The Arab American Civic Council rallied in the Little Arabia area of LA.

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