The hastily announced executive order banning people from several Middle Eastern countries for 90 days and all refugees for four months caused confusion, anguish, and anger across the United States this past weekend. As I monitored the stories that were coming in from airports across the nation, it was the stories of innocent people caught up in the mess that drove home the cruelty of this most “un-American” regulation.
5-year old boy separated from his mother at Dulles Airport
Raya Bidshahri studies neuroscience at Boston University. Because her parents are Iranian, she is worried that they will not be able to visit to see her graduation. Once she is out of school, her visa expires and she fears she will not be able to stay in the United States.
Meanwhile, Ivanka Trump shows off her new dress on social media which results in howls of protest
.@IvankaTrump Your dress is nice. Meanwhile: pic.twitter.com/mOpIyBTotf
— Txnewsprincess (@txnewsprincess) January 29, 2017
Luca Freschi, an Italian microbial geneticist at Laval University, in Québec, Canada, had planned to move to Harvard Medical School in March. But the US immigration ban has disrupted those plans, because his Iranian wife Maryam will not be able to come with him. She has encouraged Freschi to go without her. – Nature
Suha Abushamma, who is also a Sudanese citizen, was given the choice of withdrawing her visa application “voluntarily” or being forcibly deported and not allowed back to the U.S. for at least five years. – ProPublica
Even BART was getting snarky – suggesting that you could take their train directly to the protests at SFO.
You can take BART to all kinds of weekend events – also, direct service to SFO is running great right now.
— BART (@SFBART) January 28, 2017
And just in case they weren’t clear enough,
All races, colors, religions, genders, ages, disabled, veterans, orientations, sexes & those of foreign national origin are welcome on BART.
— BART (@SFBART) January 29, 2017
“They called the husband, he’s from Minnesota,” Abi explained to ABC, “They told him that you have to get your children because they’re U.S. citizens, but your wife we will deport to Africa — we’ll send her back to Africa today at 10 a.m. So if you don’t come by 10 a.m. we’ll deport her.” – Woman And Her 2 Children Held At Dulles Airport for 20 Hours With No Food
At 11:45pm Senator Cory Booker showed up and pushed through the crowd to talk with the Customs & Border Patrol agents who, despite a federal court order suspending the detainments, still held several people for questioning.
“I am now of the belief that though this was issued by the judicial branch, that it was violated tonight,” he said. “And so one of the things I will be doing is fighting to make sure that the executive branch abides by the law as it was issued in this state and around the nation. This will be an ongoing battle.”
Then there’s this story of told in a series of tweets from a vet who served in Iraq.
Echoing Gov. Jerry Brown’s remembrance of Woody Guthrie’s anthem, This Land is Your Land, protesters in Philadelphia broke out into song.
https://twitter.com/SarahLJorgensen/status/825814514746654721
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