Minnesotans to protest Muslim ban, attacks on immigrants
The Anti-War Committee has initiated an emergency response protest in response to President Donald Trump’s anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant executive orders. The demonstration will take place Tuesday, Jan. 31, 4:30 p.m., at the Federal Building, 300 S 4th Street, Minneapolis.
Meredith Aby-Keirstead, a spokesperson from the Anti-War Committee explains, “We have called this protest to send a loud message of no to President Trump and of solidarity with our immigrant sisters and brothers. We will not be silent as Trump promotes anti-Muslim bigotry. It is criminal for the U.S. to bomb and attack other countries and then turn away refugees when the U.S. has destroyed their homelands. It is outrageous for Trump to consider doing this while at the same time planning to expand the war in Iraq and Syria!”
On Jan. 25 the president also issued an executive order to start building a bigger wall between the U.S. and Mexico and he is talking about issuing more executive orders attacking immigrants. On Jan. 26 Trump issued an executive order calling for “extreme vetting” of immigrants from Iraq, Iran, Syria, Sudan, Libya, Yemen and Somalia. In his public address where he issued the order he characterized Muslims seeking entrance to the U.S. to escape war as dangerous and said the U.S. needed to “keep radical Islamic terrorists out of the United States of America.”
The protest will have speakers from the Council on American Islamic Relations-MN, the peace movement, the immigrant rights movement, and from a variety of religious faiths to defend the rights of immigrants and refugees to stay and to enter the U.S.