Minneapolis, MN – About 50 people gathered at the Federal Courthouse in downtown Minneapolis, June 29, to protest the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to reinstate Trump’s Muslim ban.

The Supreme Court’s ruling allows the ban on non-U.S. citizens for 90 days and refugees for 120 days if they come from the Muslim-majority countries of Libya, Syria, Iran, Somalia, Yemen and Sudan, unless they can establish a close relationship to someone living in the U.S.

The call for action was made by the Anti-War Committee, which also organized a protest that brought out 15,000 Minnesotans on Jan. 31, in response to Trump’s Muslim ban executive order.

Meredith Aby-Keirstad of the Anti-War Committee gave the opening speech, saying, “We are here today to say no not only to Trump’s racist Muslim ban but also to send a message to the U.S. Supreme Court. There is a real danger the court will uphold all or part of the ban as a legitimate use of the president’s powers. Only protests can prevent that from happening, or undo it if it does happen. Remember it was protests, not legal argument, that stopped the administration from implementing its discriminatory travel ban this year.”

Maggie Kilgo, representing the Minnesota Immigrant Rights Action Committee (MIRAC), stated, “Today immigrants, refugees and Muslims are under a vicious, mean-spirited attack. We in MIRAC are here to stand up to Trump’s attacks! The No More Deportations campaign has been fighting for years to stop deportations of thousands of our neighbors to Mexico, Central and South America, and we say no to attacks on Muslims, on immigrants and refugees. We are here today to say enough is enough. It is only by standing together and taking collective action that we can stop these attacks.”

Skyler Dorr of Students Democratic Society spoke about the recent counter-protest to an anti-Muslim rally on June 10 at the Minnesota State Capitol. “Our country is more at risk of being taken over by ultra-conservative Christian law than anything else. It's almost as if there is an underlying racist reason of why we think of one code of law one way and another the other way. It's almost as if there are acts being put out by our president that are encouraging people to think this way, that are encouraging people to have racist protests. This ban gives fuel to the fire of racism, Islamophobia and xenophobia.”

Some chants from the crowd denouncing the ban were, “Hey, hey, ho, ho, the Muslim ban has got to go!” and “No Donald Trump, no KKK, no Muslim ban today!”

One common sentiment expressed was that we need to continue organizing to build a campaign for when the Supreme Court meets to hear arguments on the Muslim ban this October.

#MinneapolisMN #AntiwarMovement #ImmigrantRights #AntiWarCommittee #Antiracism #MuslimBan