Trump immigration protests spread to Louisville
As protests of President Donald Trump's immigration order spread across the country on Sunday, nearly 100 demonstrators gathered at Louisville International Airport to oppose his restrictions on refugees and immigrants from seven predominantly Muslim countries.
Chanting "No hate, no fear, refugees are welcome here," demonstrators lined the airport's arrivals hall with handwritten signs that elicited thumbs-up signals and cheers from passengers. The protesters included Syrian refugees such as Mafedih Alholoqi, whose relatives were turned away from a planned flight from Jordan to Louisville in the wake of Trump's order.
After more than two years of background checks, interviews and anticipation of a shot at a new life, "it broke their hearts," said Fatema Zuhayli, a Syrian who has lived in the U.S. for decades and helped to translate for Alholoqi.
No refugees bound for Louisville were immediately known to have been detained at connecting airports, where they would first clear customs since there are no direct international flights to Louisville, local refugee agency officials said.
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Across the U.S., demonstrators marched and chanted Sunday as immigrant advocates pressed their demand for an end to the order, which included a 90-day ban on travel to the U.S. by citizens of the predominantly Muslim countries of Iraq, Syria, Iran, Sudan, Libya, Somalia or Yemen and a 120-day suspension of the U.S. refugee program. Many were prevented from entering the country Saturday at U.S. airports.
Protests were also reported at major airports in Denver, Chicago, Los Angeles and San Francisco. In New York, taxi drivers held a strike for a time as the fallout grew.
After a court challenge, a federal judge issued an emergency court order Saturday that barred U.S. border agents from removing anyone who arrived in the U.S. with a valid visa from those counties. It also covered anyone with an approved refugee application. The overarching ban, however, remains in place and threw travel and immigration into disarray for residents of a number of countries.
On Sunday afternoon, the president said in a statement that the country would show "compassion to those fleeing oppression."
"America has always been the land of the free and the home of the brave," he wrote. "We will keep it free and keep it safe, as the media knows, but refuses to say."
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While some praised his order, opposition Sunday included statements from some high-profile Louisville-based religious leaders.
"This is a miscarriage of justice and goes against everything we stand for as a country shaped and formed by people who emanated from other lands," said the Rev. J Herbert Nelson II, the top ecclesiastical and constitutional officer for the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), which is based in Louisville.
Louisville Catholic Archbishop Joseph Kurtz also weighed in, saying that "the Catholic Church has helped settle individuals fleeing violence and conflict from various regions of the world for decades. This is part of our identity, since as a Catholics, we are called by Jesus Christ to protect the vulnerable and recognize the human dignity of all people."
On Monday, Mayor Greg Fischer plans to hold a 6 p.m. rally with civic, faith and other community leaders at the Muhammad Ali Center, 144 N. Sixth St. The event is being called the "Rally for American Values."
Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell, the Senate majority leader, said in a Sunday interview with ABC that while additional vetting isn't a bad idea, "I am opposed to a religious test. The courts are going to determine whether this is too broad." Trump, meantime, tweeted, "Our country needs strong borders and extreme vetting, NOW."
The president's order sent shock waves through Louisville's large refugee and immigrant community. Since 2011 alone, the state has resettled about 4,028 refugees from Iraq, Somalia, Sudan, Iran and Syria, according to the Kentucky Office for Refugees. Among all refugees, Kentucky last year took in more than double the national average of refugees per 100,000 residents.
Sizable numbers of Iraqis and Somalis live in the area, and roughly 50,345 residents of the city were born outside the U.S., which amounts to about 7 percent of its overall population.
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Officials at Louisville's large refugee resettlement agencies – Catholic Charities and Kentucky Refugee Ministries – were still sorting out what the order would mean for individual cases. It was also unclear how it will impact the groups' budgets that pay for local staff and services as refugee admissions are sharply curtailed in 2017.
Word of Louisville's airport protest spread on social media early Sunday, and by 11:30 a.m. it had drawn dozens to the terminal. As numbers built, children sat on the floor using markers to make posters that read "No ban," while women in hijabs and others quietly held signs for passers-by reading, "If you build a wall I will tear it down," "Make Louisville a sanctuary city" and "Don't ban my family."
Nour Al Kunuss, 19, held a sign reading, "I am a Syrian refugee." She came from Homs, a city that was shattered during the long-running civil war that has killed hundreds of thousands and displaced millions. She came from Jordan with her ailing mother, who has since died, she said. Trump's order, she said, was "absolutely wrong" in its underlying assumptions about those fleeing Syria.
"I am not a dangerous person. I want to study and work," she said.
"They shouldn't treat us like everyone" is connected to ISIS, said Dr. Sami Asad, a medical doctor originally from Pakistan.
Zuhayli said that some resettled Syrian refugees in Louisville are now "scared to even go out to the grocery store" and were upset that Trump said he would favor Christians in deciding which refugees to resettle from the Middle East.
But Matt Vigil, a contractor who was at the airport watching the demonstration, said he thinks Trump was doing the right thing given the fears over terrorism. He said disagreements over the policy would be ironed out. "Better safe than sorry," he said.
Reporter Chris Kenning can be reached at 502-582-4697 or ckenning@courier-journal.com
