“LIFT up the lamp at the golden door!” Adriano Espaillat shouted into the microphone, invoking the last line of “The New Colossus,” the poem engraved in the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty. His amplified words carried over a cheering crowd of thousands packed in Battery Park in downtown Manhattan. Their mittened hands lifted signs that read “No Ban, No Wall” and “Patrol White Supremacy, Not Borders”. Mr Espaillat, the first Dominican-American member of Congress, came to America as an undocumented immigrant. Behind him in New York Harbour, stood Ellis Island and Lady Liberty herself.
The protests began the day before at a modern Ellis Island—Terminal 4 at Kennedy International Airport. On the afternoon of January 27th , Donald Trump signed an executive order severely restricting travellers from seven predominantly Muslim countries. Its effects took hold on January 28th when travellers from those countries were being detained by the Department of Homeland Security in airports across the country, in a fog of confusion about the order’s reach. Word of the detentions quickly spread, and the crowds at the airport grew steadily throughout the afternoon....Continue reading
Source: United States http://ift.tt/2kJHNpc
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