{"id":32174,"date":"2017-01-29T01:45:37","date_gmt":"2017-01-29T01:45:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/protest-at-jfk-airport-over-trump-s-refugee-ban\/"},"modified":"2017-01-29T01:44:45","modified_gmt":"2017-01-29T01:44:45","slug":"protest-at-jfk-airport-over-trump-s-refugee-ban","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/protest-at-jfk-airport-over-trump-s-refugee-ban\/","title":{"rendered":"Protest at JFK airport over Trump’s refugee ban"},"content":{"rendered":"

{Protests planned at several more US airports as authorities block entry of migrants, including green card holders.}<\/p>\n

Protests have broken out at the John F Kennedy (JFK) International Airport in New York City as immigrants, including US green card holders, are detained following right-wing President Donald Trump’s executive order placing harsh restrictions on travellers from several Muslim-majority countries. <\/p>\n

Hundreds of demonstrators chanted “No ban, no wall, sanctuary for all!” and “no hate, no fear, immigrants are welcome here!” while gathering outside the airport’s Terminal Four arrivals section. <\/p>\n

Other protests were held at airports in Chicago, San Francisco, Washington, DC, among other US cities. <\/p>\n

The protests came in response to passport holders from Arab countries being blocked on Saturday from passing through customs at US airports, while others were prevented from boarding US-bound planes.<\/p>\n

On Friday, Trump signed an executive order to curb immigration and the entry of people from some Muslim-majority countries. He separately said he wanted the US to give priority to Syrian Christians fleeing the civil war there.<\/p>\n

Trump placed a four-month hold on allowing refugees into the country and temporarily barred travellers from Syria and six other Muslim-majority countries.<\/p>\n

The protest was attended by several New York-based organisations, including Make the Road New York, Jews for Racial and Economic Justice (JFREJ), Black Latino Asian Caucus members and The New York Immigration Coalition, among others. <\/p>\n

Speaking to Al Jazeera, Julia Carmel, an organiser with JFREJ, decried Trump’s executive order. <\/p>\n

“The purpose of our protest at JFK airport is two-fold. First, we are demanding the safe release of refugees and other visa-holders, all of whom cooperated with a long and gruelling vetting process in order to get here,” she said. <\/p>\n

“Additionally, the central message of our protest is that we are all immigrants or children of immigrants and refugees. The executive order is not only inhumane; it is absurd and hypocritical,” she added, pointing out that the ban came into effect on Holocaust Remembrance Day (Friday). <\/p>\n

Tara Raghuveer, a 24-year-old national immigrant rights organiser with Make the Road New York, described the executive orders as “deeply un-American”.<\/p>\n

“They go against everything our country aspires to stand for,” she told Al Jazeera at the protest. <\/p>\n

Kazi Fouzia, a 48-year-old Bangladeshi immigrant and activist with Desis Rising Up and Moving, said she came to the protest to say: “Banning one of us is banning all of us. Terrorising one of us is terrorising all of us.” <\/p>\n

Fouzia, who has lived in New York City for ten years, added: “We are here to make sure every single held in JFK will be released… we have to take down the policy.”<\/p>\n

Lawsuits <\/p>\n

Trump administration officials have defended the executive order. Speaking to reporters on Saturday, a senior US administration official confirmed that the restrictions will impact legal permanent residents, known as green card holders, on a case-by-base basis. <\/p>\n

For at least 90 days, citizens of Iraq, Iran, Somalia, Yemen, Sudan and Libya are barred from entering the country. Syrians have been banned from entering the US indefinitely. <\/p>\n

Immigrants from the seven countries have been blocked from bordering US-bound planes in Lebanon, Egypt, United Arab Emirates and elsewhere. <\/p>\n

Legal representatives for two Iraqi men filed lawsuits against Trump and the US government on Saturday, according to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), a rights group. <\/p>\n

Both men had ties to the US military and were had visas. They were detained on Friday night in JFK Airport. <\/p>\n

“President Trump’s war on equality is already taking a terrible human toll. This ban cannot be allowed to continue,” said Omar Jadwat, director of the ACLU’s Immigrants’ Rights Project, in a statement .<\/p>\n

\"Kazi<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

{Protests planned at several more US airports as authorities block entry of migrants, including green card holders.} Protests have broken out at the John F Kennedy (JFK) International Airport in New York City as immigrants, including US green card holders, are detained following right-wing President Donald Trump’s executive order placing harsh restrictions on travellers from […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[101],"byline":[2474],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-32174","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-internationl","byline-al-jazeera"],"bylines":[{"id":2474,"name":"AL JAZEERA","slug":"al-jazeera","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"contributors":[{"id":2474,"name":"AL JAZEERA","slug":"al-jazeera","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32174","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32174"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32174\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32174"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32174"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32174"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=32174"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=32174"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}