Culture

Protests Have Broken Out At New York’s JFK Airport Over Trump’s Muslim Ban

The effects of the ban are already being felt.

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Thousands of protesters have rallied at New York’s John F. Kennedy airport in response to President Trump’s executive order preventing travellers from a number of Muslim-majority countries from entering the United States.

By late afternoon on Saturday (New York time), more than 2,000 protesters are reported to have gathered outside the airport’s international arrivals area, brandishing signs and chanting slogans including “build a wall, we’ll tear it down” and “no hate, no fear, immigrants are welcome here”.

The effects of Trump’s draconian travel ban are already being felt, with visitors, including those with green cards, reportedly being held up by customs officials at airports around the US, and prevented from boarding US-bound planes in other countries. At least 12 people have been detained at JFK, although one man – an Iraqi who worked as a translator with the US military – has since been released.

“The purpose of our protest at JFK airport is two-fold,” organiser Julia Carmel told Al Jazeera. “First, we are demanding the safe release of refugees and other visa-holders, all of whom cooperated with a long and grueling vetting process in order to get here.”

“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.”

Signed on Friday, Trump’s executive order prohibits travellers from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Syria, Sudan and Yemen from entering the United States for the next 90 days. It also places a 120 day hold on the country’s refugee intake, and an indefinite ban on refugees from Syria. The ban has been widely condemned by lawmakers and activists, with Amnesty International warning it could have “catastrophic consequences”.