'Let Them In,' Say Protesters in Detroit Airport Rally Against Trump Order
Thousands of protesters gathered at the the Detroit Metro Airport McNamara Terminal to protest an executive order signed by President Trump, banning refugees and freezing Visas for people from Iraq, Syria, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen, on January 29, 2017. Melanie Maxwell | The Ann Arbor News
Melanie Maxwell | melaniemaxwell@mlive.com
Gus Burns | fburns@mlive.com By Gus Burns | fburns@mlive.com
January 29, 2017 at 9:40 PM
As a protest in Hamtramck against President Donald Trump's executive order banning immigrants from seven select mostly-Muslim countries dissipated Sunday afternoon, Jan. 29, the Muslim call to prayer played from a former industrial building now converted to a mosque.
Inside the baggage claim area of Detroit Metropolitan Airport on Sunday evening, as thousands of people chanted, raised signs and listened to speakers opposed to Trump's immigration order, dozens of Muslims knelt and prayed toward Mecca. They used a cellphone application to figure out the proper direction to face.
Orders issued by Trump during his first week in office, including a directive to begin construction plans for a Mexico border wall and a temporary ban on certain refugees and immigrants from a group of Muslim majority countries, acted as a lightning rod for opposition.
Traffic coming off Interstate 94 at the Detroit-area airport slowed to a crawl as protesters late to the rally that began about 4 p.m. waved signs from their windows.
"Welcome to America," read the handwritten sign sticking up from the open passenger window of one black sedan.
Another SUV drove with an Iraqi flag rustling out the window while a rap song with lyrics blasting Trump played from inside.
As the traffic jam crept into a tunnel beneath a runway, a chorus of horns filled the air.
There were at least four protests in the Detroit area Sunday in response to the controversial executive order, one in Hamtramck, which has one of the highest concentrations of Muslim residents in Michigan, including many who came from Yemen, one of the countries Trump named in the ban; another at Dearborn's Henry Ford Centennial Library; the largest took place at Detroit Metro Airport's international terminal; and a sit-in was planned at Wayne State University in Detroit.
Protesters gathered in Ann Arbor and planned a demonstration at Gerald R. Ford International Airport in Grand Rapids Sunday.
Outside Hamtramck City Hall, hundreds gathered in a circle filling the lawn. New and first-generation immigrants stood alongside activists and politicians, several holding signs calling for Trump to be impeached, or comparing his intent to create a border wall and to ban certain immigrants with pre-World War II Nazi Germany.
As the Hamtramck rally died down, many were not done protesting. They instead hopped in vehicles bound for the airport.
"Racism is not patriotism," "Let them in," and "Don't repeat history," read some of the signs they packed with them.
The executive order temporarily freezes travel to the United States for refugees and visa holders from Iraq, Syria, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen.
The order won't impact diplomats, government officials or employees of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, but there have been reports of refugees headed to the United States being turned around, students blocked from flying to the United States to attend college and an Iraqi interpreter who spent a decade working with the U.S. Army stopped from entering the country.
A federal judge on Saturday night enacted an emergency stay ordering the release and halt of deportation for any travelers no longer allowed in the United States under the changes ordered by Trump.
"In order to protect Americans, the United States must ensure that those admitted to this country do not bear hostile attitudes toward it and its founding principles," Trump's order reads. "The United States cannot, and should not, admit those who do not support the Constitution, or those who would place violent ideologies over American law.
"In addition, the United States should not admit those who engage in acts of bigotry or hatred ... or those who would oppress Americans of any race, gender, or sexual orientation."
The immigration ban order is available here in full here.
"The majority of people come here for opportunity, or to get their education here," said Zryan Hassam, who is from Kurdistan in northern Iraq and attended the rally at Detroit Metro Airport.
He moved here with his family to study medicine. He now works as a paramedic in Detroit and says he's saved "many lives."
Hassam said it's natural for the United States to want to vet immigrants, but he feels the process is already very thorough.
"I don't blame that," Hassam said. "There's no way we are going to say, 'Hey, everybody, come here.'
"For me and my family, I did five years of interviews with Homeland Security. There is investigation ... They want to know what kind of background you have. Are you a safe guy? Are you a bad guy?"
Under the current order, Hassam, who has a visa and carries an Iraqi passport, said he wouldn't be allowed to travel home or visit family.
"You have to respect human beings," he said. "We are beautiful together ... Because we are Muslim, should not make us enemies."
Also among the crowd was Josh Berkow, 35, a Jewish man who lives in Detroit.
His mother and grandparents were refugees after World War II and spent seven years after the end of the war living in a U.S.-run refugee camp for Jews in Germany.
"Jews have a position of great privilege in this country, but we are a historically persecuted people," he said. "We have responsibility to stand with other persecuted people, whether it is us or somebody else, because it originally was us and still is in other parts of the world."
Melanie Maxwell | melaniemaxwell@mlive.com
Gus Burns | fburns@mlive.com By Gus Burns | fburns@mlive.com
January 29, 2017 at 9:40 PM
As a protest in Hamtramck against President Donald Trump's executive order banning immigrants from seven select mostly-Muslim countries dissipated Sunday afternoon, Jan. 29, the Muslim call to prayer played from a former industrial building now converted to a mosque.
Inside the baggage claim area of Detroit Metropolitan Airport on Sunday evening, as thousands of people chanted, raised signs and listened to speakers opposed to Trump's immigration order, dozens of Muslims knelt and prayed toward Mecca. They used a cellphone application to figure out the proper direction to face.
Orders issued by Trump during his first week in office, including a directive to begin construction plans for a Mexico border wall and a temporary ban on certain refugees and immigrants from a group of Muslim majority countries, acted as a lightning rod for opposition.
Traffic coming off Interstate 94 at the Detroit-area airport slowed to a crawl as protesters late to the rally that began about 4 p.m. waved signs from their windows.
"Welcome to America," read the handwritten sign sticking up from the open passenger window of one black sedan.
Another SUV drove with an Iraqi flag rustling out the window while a rap song with lyrics blasting Trump played from inside.
As the traffic jam crept into a tunnel beneath a runway, a chorus of horns filled the air.
There were at least four protests in the Detroit area Sunday in response to the controversial executive order, one in Hamtramck, which has one of the highest concentrations of Muslim residents in Michigan, including many who came from Yemen, one of the countries Trump named in the ban; another at Dearborn's Henry Ford Centennial Library; the largest took place at Detroit Metro Airport's international terminal; and a sit-in was planned at Wayne State University in Detroit.
Protesters gathered in Ann Arbor and planned a demonstration at Gerald R. Ford International Airport in Grand Rapids Sunday.
Outside Hamtramck City Hall, hundreds gathered in a circle filling the lawn. New and first-generation immigrants stood alongside activists and politicians, several holding signs calling for Trump to be impeached, or comparing his intent to create a border wall and to ban certain immigrants with pre-World War II Nazi Germany.
As the Hamtramck rally died down, many were not done protesting. They instead hopped in vehicles bound for the airport.
"Racism is not patriotism," "Let them in," and "Don't repeat history," read some of the signs they packed with them.
The executive order temporarily freezes travel to the United States for refugees and visa holders from Iraq, Syria, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen.
The order won't impact diplomats, government officials or employees of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, but there have been reports of refugees headed to the United States being turned around, students blocked from flying to the United States to attend college and an Iraqi interpreter who spent a decade working with the U.S. Army stopped from entering the country.
A federal judge on Saturday night enacted an emergency stay ordering the release and halt of deportation for any travelers no longer allowed in the United States under the changes ordered by Trump.
"In order to protect Americans, the United States must ensure that those admitted to this country do not bear hostile attitudes toward it and its founding principles," Trump's order reads. "The United States cannot, and should not, admit those who do not support the Constitution, or those who would place violent ideologies over American law.
"In addition, the United States should not admit those who engage in acts of bigotry or hatred ... or those who would oppress Americans of any race, gender, or sexual orientation."
The immigration ban order is available here in full here.
"The majority of people come here for opportunity, or to get their education here," said Zryan Hassam, who is from Kurdistan in northern Iraq and attended the rally at Detroit Metro Airport.
He moved here with his family to study medicine. He now works as a paramedic in Detroit and says he's saved "many lives."
Hassam said it's natural for the United States to want to vet immigrants, but he feels the process is already very thorough.
"I don't blame that," Hassam said. "There's no way we are going to say, 'Hey, everybody, come here.'
"For me and my family, I did five years of interviews with Homeland Security. There is investigation ... They want to know what kind of background you have. Are you a safe guy? Are you a bad guy?"
Under the current order, Hassam, who has a visa and carries an Iraqi passport, said he wouldn't be allowed to travel home or visit family.
"You have to respect human beings," he said. "We are beautiful together ... Because we are Muslim, should not make us enemies."
Also among the crowd was Josh Berkow, 35, a Jewish man who lives in Detroit.
His mother and grandparents were refugees after World War II and spent seven years after the end of the war living in a U.S.-run refugee camp for Jews in Germany.
"Jews have a position of great privilege in this country, but we are a historically persecuted people," he said. "We have responsibility to stand with other persecuted people, whether it is us or somebody else, because it originally was us and still is in other parts of the world."
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