Trump Immigration Ban Sparks Massive Protests at U.S. Airports
A ban on immigration from seven predominantly Muslim countries by President Donald Trum sparked massive protests at airports across the U.S. on this day, a Saturday. Trump’s Executive Order 13769 immediately banned all immigration from Iraq, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen. The order also banned all refugees from civil war-torn Syria. People who were on their way to the U.S. from these countries were detained at airports.
Massive spontaneous protests occurred as people opposed to Trump’s policy flocked to Kennedy Airport in New York City, and airports in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, Portland, Dallas, Houston and Washington, DC. The ACLU, which had anticipated Trump’s anti-immigrant action, went to court on Saturday night and obtained a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) temporarily blocking Trump’s order.
Trump’s executive order fulfilled his anti-immigrant rhetoric in the 2016 presidential election campaign. The protesters were inspired by the massive protests against Trump in the U.S. and in other countries the week before on January 21, 2017, the day after Trump’s inauguration as president.
One year (minus one day) after Trump’s order on this day, on January 26, 2018, the Supreme Court upheld what was then the third of his immigration “Muslim bans” in Trump v. Hawaii. Trump’s original order had been enjoined by a federal district court in March 2017, and Trum issued a second immigration travel ban on March 6, 2017. When that order was also enjoined by district courts, Trump issued a third order on September 9, 2017, which the Supreme Court upheld.
Follow the ACLU’s actions on immigrants’ rights here
Learn more: Margaret Sands Orchowski, Immigration and the American Dream: Battling the Political Hype and Hysteria (2008)
See a timeline on U.S. immigration history here