They’re not with him. Protests broke out at airports across the United States on Saturday, January 28, in response to Donald Trump‘s ban on travelers from seven Muslim-majority countries.
The demonstrations began early Saturday at New York City’s John F. Kennedy International Airport where, hours earlier, two Iraqis were detained due to the Muslim ban, even though they both had U.S. visas. One of the detainees, Hameed Khalid Darweesh, a 53-year-old man who worked for the U.S. military during the Iraq War, was released on Saturday afternoon, while the other, Haider Sameer Abdukhaleg Alshawi, 33, is still being held.
The JFK protest began at about 11 a.m., according to Pix 11 News, as people outside Terminal 4 chanted, “No hate, no fear. Immigrants are welcome here!” Several protestors held up signs that read, “Legal Visas = Let Them In” and “No Ban, No Wall.” The New York Taxi Workers Alliance also publicly declared its support for the protest and vowed not to pick up passengers between 6 and 7 p.m.
“Our 19,000-member-strong union stands firmly opposed to Donald Trump’s Muslim ban,” the labor union said in a statement on Facebook. “As an organization whose membership is largely Muslim, a workforce that’s almost universally immigrant and a working-class movement that is rooted in the defense of the oppressed, we say no to this inhumane and unconstitutional ban.”
Trump, 70, signed the executive order, which also banned Syrian refugees indefinitely, on Friday, January 27. The ban is temporary, but the president has the power to extend it. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo condemned the order on his Twitter account, writing, “I never thought I’d see the day when refugees, who have fled war-torn countries in search of a better life, would be turned away at our doorstep. We are a nation of bridges, not walls … This is not who we are. And not who we should be.”
Protestors also gathered at Washington Dulles International Airport, Chicago O’Hare International Airport, Dallas–Fort Worth Airport and San Francisco International Airport, where several people are also being detained. A demonstration at Los Angeles International Airport is scheduled for late Saturday afternoon.
