8:15 p.m. ET Jan. 28, 2017 New York taxi drivers have their own response to President Donald Trump's immigration ban: A strike.
As protests continue to break out across major U.S. airports Saturday night following President Trump's immigration ban, taxi drivers at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport have gone on strike.
In postings to social networks Saturday the New York Taxi Workers Alliance announced that from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. ET there would be no pickups at JFK as a protest to the immigration ban that some are taking as a ban on Muslims.
"We cannot be silent. We go to work to welcome people to a land that once welcomed us," wrote the union on Twitter. "We will not be divided."
President Trump's executive order denying all refugees and immigrants from seven predominantly Muslim countries reverberated across the USA and around the globe Saturday.
It also turned into a full working day at the White House, where Trump continued to sign executive orders and spent hours making phone calls to several world leaders.
A federal judge issued the ruling to temporarily allow people who landed in U.S. or those who are in transit and hold a valid visa to remain. The American Civil Liberties Union argued for the stay that would block deportation of people stranded in U.S. airports under the executive order Trump signed Friday. The overarching ban, which remains in place, suspends the entry of all refugees to the United States for 120 days, halts the admission of refugees from Syria indefinitely and bars entry for three months to residents from the predominantly Muslim countries of Iraq, Syria, Iran, Sudan, Libya, Somalia and Yemen.
By Saturday evening, Department of Homeland Security agents had stopped 109 foreigners at U.S. airports based on Trump’s order and prevented another 173 people from boarding flights headed for the U.S. A senior Homeland Security official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to provide an operational update on Trump’s order, said it allowed legal permanent residents — known as green card holders — and foreigners who were granted special visas for Iraqi and Afghan interpreters, to enter after undergoing a full background check and in-person interview. The official said 81 people made it through that process and were allowed to enter the country.
Protests ramp up at airports across USA
Over 1,000 people gathered at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York and more than 120 at Newark Liberty International Airport clutching signs denouncing the executive order, alongside lawyers who rushed to airports to defend the rights of refugees, immigrants and green-card holders, among others, who were being detained and denied entry.
Protests were also reported at major airports in Denver, Chicago, Los Angeles and San Francisco.
Lawsuits also on the rise
The ACLU and other legal groups filed lawsuits in reaction to the ban. Separately, two lawyers filed on behalf of two Iraqi refugees detained at JFK. At Washington's Dulles International Airport, where a protest was mounted, Gov. Terry McAuliffe and Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring said the state was considering taking legal action to challenge the ban.
Dozens detained at U.S. airports, other stranded abroad
The ban struck with full force Saturday, blocking some travelers from boarding their planes overseas, compelling others to turn around upon arrival in the U.S., and prompting customs agents at New York's JFK Airport to detain at least a dozen people.
About 50 people were detained at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport and some families were left waiting for hours for relatives stuck in the process.
At Philadelphia International Airport, two Syrian families, described as Christians, were briefly detained Saturday after arriving from Qatar and sent back three hours later.
Iran retaliates, Canada opens arms after Trump immigration ban
World leaders reacted harshly Saturday to President Trump's executive order suspending immigration and visas for citizens from certain countries with majority Muslim populations. Iran, one of the targeted nations, suggested it would limit issuing visas to American tourists. The official IRNA news agency Saturday carried a statement by the Iranian foreign ministry that says Iran will resort to “counteraction” to Trump’s executive order.
