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Jan 28, 17

IGD: Protests Breakout at Airports Against Trump’s Immigration Ban

Originally published to It’s Going Down

On Friday night, Donald Trump signed an executive order entitled, “Protecting the Nation from Foreign Terrorist Entry into the United States,” that issued a sweeping temporary ban on re-entry for green card holders intro the US from 7 majority-Muslim countries including Iraq, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen. Notably, these countries don’t include major US ally Saudi Arabia as well as countries that Trump has large business dealings in such as Turkey and Egypt. This ban comes hot on the heels of Trump beating the drums of nuclear war against super-powers like China and Russia, “regional powers” such as Iran, and pushing a trade-war with Mexico which seeks to make them bay for a massive wall along the Mexican border. Trump also repeated his calls for the use of torture against those suspected of “terrorism” along with the expansion of CIA black sites, all while using the cover of attacking ISIL and with the full backing from the Democratic Party.

What underscores all of this is Trump’s push to increase American economic power in the face of rising super-powers like China and Russia while also securing massive amounts of energy resources both in the US and abroad, as evidenced by Trump’s recent executive orders which push through the Keystone XL and DAPL pipelines and seek to open up federal land to resource extraction. Trump even went so far recently as to state while giving a speech at CIA headquarters that it was possible another war in Iraq would break out in order for the US to secure the country’s oil supplies.

In response to the executive order, the Department of Homeland Security confirmed that it was applying the ban on green-card holders from the 7 countries and in response, began to detained at airports and forced them to submit to interrogations. Meanwhile, Trump spoke in the media mid-Saturday about how the ban was going smoothly, despite most news agencies reporting chaos engulfing Customs and Border Protection, (the head of which, Julie Kirchner, is a white nationalist, and formerly a member of the anti-immigrant group FAIR, and was just appointed by Steve Bannon, formerly of Breitbart), and with large scale demonstrations breaking out over the ban at various airports.

According to Vox, the ban could end of affecting up to 500,000 green card holders:

In some cases, green-card holders are being allowed to enter the US even if they’ve come from a “banned” country. An administration official confirmed Saturday afternoon that they’re making “case-by-case” exceptions to allow certain green-card holders into the US.

“We are hearing that some [legal permanent residents] are being admitted after lots of questions” from Customs and Border Protection agents, says William Stock, the president of the American Immigration Lawyers Association.

Another article stated:

One woman who was being deported to Chile under the ban even attempted suicide at JFK Airport in New York City, before she was saved by two Port Authority police officers. New York City taxi drivers went on strike Saturday evening in protest, and tech companies like Apple and Google were speaking out against the order and scrambling to protect their employees.

In response, protests have broken out at airports across the US in response to the ban, demanding that those held at airports in detention be allowed to leave and that lawyers be allowed to come in and represent those seeking re-entry. Where these demonstrations go is anyone’s guess, but they represent the first serious response to Trump’s rapid fire executive orders which are designed to increase corporate profits, attack broad sections of the population, re-strengthen white supremacy and patriarchy, and solidify his far-Right wing base.

On Saturday evening, the ACLU reported that they had successfully tied up the executive order in court, however in airports, it was still being reported that those coming through checkpoints were being detained and interrogated. As one article wrote:

The American Civil Liberties Union announced Saturday evening that a federal court in New York had issued an emergency stay on President Trump’s executive order banning immigration from seven predominantly Muslim countries. The court’s decision, which will affect people who have been detained in airports, came after the ACLU and other activist groups filed a class action lawsuit on behalf of two Iraqis who were held at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York as a result of the order.

While these actions might tie up various executive orders in court, or even defeat some of the most ‘egregious’ new legislation, it still will do nothing to stop police, Homeland Security, and ICE agents from being able to do what they have been designed to do: attack, harass, surveill, repress, deport, and kill people at will, with impunity, and in the service of the State. Only the people themselves have the ability to push back and overcome the power of the government over all our lives.

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It’s Going Down is a digital community center from anarchist, anti-fascist, autonomous anti-capitalist and anti-colonial movements. Our mission is to provide a resilient platform to publicize and promote revolutionary theory and action.

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