The chants from the crowd of protesters started drowning out Syracuse Mayor Stephanie Miner. As she talked to a television station, Miner took a slight step forward and elevated her voice.

“No hate. No fear. Refugees are welcome here,” the protesters repeated.

Hundreds of people showed up to Terminal A at Syracuse Hancock International Airport to protest Donald Trump’s executive order banning immigration from seven majority Muslim countries. Similar to the Women’s March before it and the various other protests throughout President Donald Trump’s first week in office, the protesters sent a clear message: Regardless of the views of the their representatives, everyone would hear their voices.

The crowd peaked in size and might as Miner spoke to the television station. Around the country, at least 41 other protests occurred, according to an image circulated on Twitter. It did not include the Syracuse protest.

“Marches and voices and making sure people know what your values are, are incredibly important,” Miner said while she gripped a megaphone and spoke to the crowd encircling her. “Because this is going to be a time when people look back and say, ‘Where were you?’”

Trump’s order blocked citizens of Syria, Sudan, Iran, Iraq, Yemen, Somalia and Libya from entering the United States for 90 days and all refugee admissions for 120 to allow for what Trump called more “extreme vetting.” Trump released a statement Sunday claiming that the executive order was not a Muslim ban, even though affected countries are all majority Muslim.

On Saturday, lawyers from the American Civil Liberties Union arrived at airports where President Trump’s executive order forced U.S. Customs and Border Protection to detain travelers.

In some cases, those traveling to the U.S. from the seven countries were reportedly removed from flights to the U.S. or put on flights out of the country, effectively deporting them. The ban initially included those with certain visas and even green card holders.

At his inauguration on Jan. 20, Trump claimed that under his leadership the country would eradicate “radical Islamic terrorism.” The order also prioritized admitting Christian refugees.

Miner has called Syracuse a sanctuary city in the past, which means it doesn’t arrest and hold immigrants long enough to be deported by federal authorities. People started arriving at the rally, organized by the CNY Solidarity Coalition, around 6 p.m., and the first chants began at 6:21 p.m.

Aline Martins | Staff Writer

“No hate. No fear. Refugees are welcome here.”

“We kept hearing from the liberal left, ‘It’s not going to be that bad. He’s not going to go that far. And he’s not going to build the wall. He’s just pandering to his base,’” said Herve Comeau, a graduate student at Syracuse University. “And the further he goes, the more we need to react.

“And although I was terrified this morning, being here I’m heartened and I’m less afraid because it seems like there are people with more privilege than me who are willing to stand up for me, and I, in turn, am willing to stand up for people who have less privilege than I do.”

A federal judge in Brooklyn granted an emergency stay against the executive order late Saturday night. The ruling from the federal court in Brooklyn allows those with legal visas to stay in the country temporarily and protects those who were traveling when the executive order was signed on Friday afternoon. The ACLU filed the case on behalf of two men detained at John F. Kennedy International Airport in Queens. Whether the stay becomes permanent will be determined in court at a later date. The order does not limit or overturn the ban permanently.

At the protest in Syracuse, chants of “Where is Katko?” broke out, calling out Rep. John Katko (R-N.Y.), who had yet to release a statement about the executive order. Katko provided a statement to News Channel 9 about 10 minutes after the chant broke out, calling on the U.S. to accept refugees, but adding that “appropriate screening procedures need to be in place.”

“On Homeland Security, I have consistently been supportive of appropriate, thoughtful policy to strengthen our vetting procedures and ensure the safety of the American people,” Katko said in the statement. “I am confident that we can work in Congress to produce a more streamlined vetting process for refugees entering our country.”

Many took the megaphone and spoke to the crowd at Sunday’s rally. Comeau, a member of Black Lives Matter in Syracuse and a graduate student at SU’s MFA program, said undocumented immigrants organized with BLM this summer and that Syrians and Iraqis telecasted live to show support from those countries despite “living in fear in their own country.”

“What we wanted to show them today was that we stand with them in solidarity now as they stood in solidarity with us then,” Comeau said.

Some protesters brought their kids. One protester, Abdulaziz Shifa, an economics professor at SU, said he is Muslim and has only lived in the U.S. for four years. He brought his daughter and said he had always felt at home in the U.S. Shifa, who is from Ethiopia, added he wanted to see the “real America” at the rally. He’s now worried that his parents won’t be able to visit him or his kids.

There is only one road into the airport and, as the crowd grew, one protester said traffic backed up, letting people only trickle in. After the protest, several cars were parked along the road into the airport.

As Miner finished her speech, she invoked Martin Luther King Jr. as people clapped.

“The real heroes of the civil rights movement are the people you don’t know,” Miner said of a story King once told. “They are represented in a 72-year-old African American woman, who was marching, and he said to her, ‘Sister, aren’t you tired?’

“She said, ‘My feet are tired, but my soul is rested.’”

Published on January 29, 2017 at 11:58 pm

Contact Chris: cjlibona@syr.edu | @ChrisLibonati