Chicago, IL –(ENEWSPF)—March 16, 2017. Although a federal judge in Hawaii placed a temporary restraining order on Trump’s revised Muslim Ban, immigrant rights and Movement for Black Lives organizations, as well as unions and legal advocates, will move forward with plans to protest ICE and the Department of Justice (DOJ) today.
The event will be held at the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Headquarters, 101 W. Congress Parkway in downtown Chicago beginning with a press conference at 4:30 p.m. and a rally at 5 p.m.
“While Trump had tried to apply cosmetic changes by excluding from the order legal permanent residents and those who already have visas, one thing was clear to all of us, including the judge in Hawaii,” said Hatem Abudayyeh, Executive Director of the Arab American Action Network. “It is still xenophobic and anti-Arab and filled with racist language used to criminalize us. It is still a Muslim ban.
“And since it is expected that the White House will challenge this ruling all the way to the Supreme Court, we have to continue our protests until it is rescinded.”
Trump’s new version of the ban would have gone into effect across the United States one minute after midnight this morning, and targeted immigrants and refugees from 6 of the original 7 Arab, Muslim, and African countries—Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Yemen, Iran, and Syria.
The protest is also continuing as scheduled because it addresses a number of other issues besides the ban, including the ramping up of ICE activity as a result of the Department of Homeland Security’s implementation memos on immigration enforcement, which have created a climate of repression and fear in all immigrant communities, especially amongst Mexicans and Central Americans. Organizers will discuss the importance of passing the Chicago welcoming city ordinance amendments, now in the city council, and the welcoming state version, the Trust Act.
In addition, this action targets the DOJ, led by the racist Jeff Sessions, who has promised to criminalize protests, as well as provide less federal oversight of local police departments, including Chicago’s. This has the intended effect of allowing the police to continue to commit brutality and crimes with impunity against Black communities.
Source: Arab American Action Network
