Anger boiled over across Michigan in reaction to President Donald Trump’s executive order restricting entry into the U.S. for people from seven Muslim-dominated countries.
A large group of protesters gathered at Detroit Metro Airport on Sunday night. The airport estimated the crowd at more than 2,000 early in the day. Organizers later said the number was closer to 3,500 people.
“We are here for a better life,” said Elanz Torkamnai, a Wayne State student who joined the protest outside the McNamara terminal. “We are not here for making trouble in the USA. We are not all terrorists. We care about the U.S. We are here to work, to study and to make this country with you guys.”
Torkamnai hasn’t seen her parents in four years. She fears that a recent executive action by President Donald Trump will keep them from seeing her the final two years she is in school.
News trickled down Saturday night that a federal court in Brooklyn had granted an emergency stay on the President’s executive order that bans immigration from Syria, Yemen, Sudan, Somalia, Iraq, Iran and Libya. However, protestors decided to carry on with events throughout the country.
The Department of Homeland Security said in a press release that it “will continue to enforce all of the president’s Executive Orders in a manner that ensures the safety and security of the American people.”
The President later reacted through a statement released by the White House. While he didn’t address the protests directly, he did take on the issue of border security.
“America is a proud nation of immigrants and we will continue to show compassion to those fleeing oppression,” said President Trump, |but we will do so while protecting our own citizens and border.”
The President’s statement said that the media is creating a false perception that the executive order on travel is a Muslim ban, but countered that his move is about terror and keeping the country safe. He also noted that there are a number of majority Muslim countries not included in his order.
“America has always been the land of the free and home of the brave. We will keep it free and keep it safe, as the media knows, but refuses to say.”
While the President took time Sunday to react to his latest executive action, it seemed to do little to calm the masses gathering throughout the country. Chants of “Not my President,” and “No ban, no wall” could be heard throughout the Detroit airport. It wasn’t the only location with protestors.
In Ann Arbor, 200-300 people gathered outside the Federal Building to protest.
“We thought we might get a half-dozen or a dozen people,” said David Collins, who originally posted his plans to stand outside with signs alongside his wife and daughter online. “Within a couple of hours it had been shared and spread and grew. It’s now an entity far beyond us or our planning.”
Among those who showed up at the Ann Arbor protest was Debbie Osborne, the daughter of Jewish immigrants who fled from Germany during the Holocaust.
“I was driving home from up North (when I heard about the ban) and I just started to cry,” said Osborne. “That was my reaction. Sadness, anger for sure, this isn’t right. We don’t pick and choose people.”
Osborne held a handmade sign with the inscription from the Statue of Liberty, and said she was appalled by what she was watching unfold.
The White House has stated that the United States will begin to issue visas once they have reviewed and implemented the most secure policies possible. The executive action that is currently in place calls for a 90-day travel ban.
On “This Week” White House spokesman Sean Spicer said that more countries could be added to the list at a later date, noting that the seven countries involved in President Trump’s executive order had been identified by the Obama administration as needing further scrutiny.
