After a weekend of turmoil at many of the nation’s airports following President Trump's executive order to suspend the U.S. refugee program and temporarily prohibit entry to citizens of seven predominantly Muslim nations, federal officials said all people being detained on arrival to the U.S. had been released. But that hasn’t put a stop to demands to lift the travel ban.
Protests continued to be held and organized throughout the country — incluidng in New York, New Orleans, Colorado and Connecticut. According to Ground Game, an online platform for organizing, at least a dozen demonstrations were planned for this week in what the group described as a “fight against Islamophobia and Fascism."
Calls to rally, demonstrate and protest swept social media platforms, including Twitter and Facebook.
In Louisville, Ky., a rally was planned for Monday evening at the Muhammad Ali Center, in what organizers said would be a gathering "for American values” and “to voice support for our nation and our city, which was founded and is strengthened by immigrants.” In Hattiesburg, Miss., there was call to join “a peaceful vigil in solidarity with refugees, immigrants, and Muslims” on the University of Southern Mississippi campus on Monday evening.
Declaring that “Jersey City stands with our Muslim and immigrant community,” organizers in that New Jersey city called on people to come to a pedestrian mall on Monday to stand “in solidarity and peace as we show our strength in diversity as one of the most diverse cities in the nation.”
Other demonstrations were planned for later in the week in cities nationwide, including Tuesday in Tuscon, where organizers encouraged people to “stand in solidarity with Senator (John) McCain's strong public statement opposing the executive order banning refugees and Legal Permanent Residents from Muslim countries!”
Similar actions were planned on Tuesday at the South Carolina State House in Columbia and at the Worchester City Hall and Common in Massachusetts, while organizers in San Francisco, under the banner #NoBanNoWallSF, urged residents to join “the resistance against Donald Trump's racist and exclusionary Executive Orders” on Saturday.
“We will not allow our country to be divided by hate and religious persecution,” read a statement from #NoBanNoWallSF posted on Facebook.