islandbetweenrivers:hellotailor:Hundreds of people are rallying outside JFK airport to protest again
islandbetweenrivers:hellotailor:Hundreds of people are rallying outside JFK airport to protest against Trump’s muslim ban. Here’s a statement of support from the New York Tax Workers Alliance:“Our 19,000-member-strong union stands firmly opposed to Donald Trump’s Muslim ban. As an organization whose membership is largely Muslim, a workforce that’s almost universally immigrant, and a working-class movement that is rooted in the defense of the oppressed, we say no to this inhumane and unconstitutional ban.”Oh god, I can’t say how much this means to me. I can’t be there tonight because I live a good couple hundred miles away from JFK now but it really does mean a lot to me personally to read this and to know people are down there right now.And I’ve been trying to put my thoughts together all day, and basically they’re something like: I’m echoing many, many people when I say that Trump’s executive order banning immigration from seven Muslim-majority countries is chilling. I am heartsick to read about refugees who had their visas being turned away. I am appalled to hear about Iraqi translators who worked for the US armed forces in Iraq being detained.And I know I’ll be preaching to the choir here, but I want share some personal history.JFK is where my parents entered the United States, something like a decade a part, in the wake of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, which opened up immigration from Asia, Africa, the Middle East, etc., and later changes in immigration law that allowed for family reunification. The point is, JFK is my Ellis Island and my Angel Island. Forget Plymouth Rock. JFK is where the United States begins for me. And yes, I’m romanticizing. Airports, as the events of today, February 28, 2017, have made abundantly clear, are sites of harassment and racial profiling and detainment and the anxiety of flying when you’re not white.But I also feel like in our time, those international arrivals halls, the moment of getting out to meet the people waiting for you, to breath in New York? That’s our equivalent of the first sight of the Statue of Liberty. JFK (and all those other international airports and so many other points of entry) is where people go through customs and immigration, where people cross a carpet and a border at the same time. It’s where the most hopeful thing about America lives. And so it means a lot to me to know there are people there, where my parents entered this country, saying that refugees and immigrants are welcome here. -- source link
#dempocalypse now#muslim ban