GIVES WAY TO CHEERS
release of foreign travelers who were being detained, U.S. District Judge Ann Donnelly issued an order barring U.S. border agents from removing anyone who arrived in the U.S. with a valid visa from the nations included in Trump’s ban.
The ruling was met with cheers from the thousands who were protesting at New York City’s John F. Kennedy International Airport, where Hameed Khalid Darweesh, a 53-year-old Iraqi interpreter who worked with the U.S. military, was detained overnight. Similar largescale protests erupted at Logan International Airport, New Jersey’s Newark Liberty International, Denver International, San Francisco International, O’Hare International in Chicago and Dulles International in Virginia.
At Logan, U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren had the more than 1,000 who gathered repeat after her: “It’s illegal; it will be overturned.”
“An attack on anyone for their religious beliefs is an attack on the very foundation of democracy,” Warren said. “We will not turn away children. We will not turn away families. We will not turn away people who try to help Americans. We will not turn away anyone because of their religion. We are a better people than that.”
ACLU Massachusetts lawyer Carl Williams confirmed the court victory to the crowd, setting off a raucous round of applause.
“The premise we learned tonight is that when we fight, we win,” Williams said.
Shortly after the stay was announced, Mazdak Tootkaboni, a University of Massachusetts engineering professor from Iran who was detained for hours after flying into Logan from France, walked into the embrace of teary relatives who had spent hours waiting for him to clear security.
“This, I should say, is uplifting,” Tootkaboni said, adding he never doubted he would be released to his relatives. “I’m an optimistic person, so I didn’t feel like anything was going to happen.”
Mayor Martin J. Walsh, who addressed demonstrators through a bullhorn, shouted: “What happened this week is not what we stand for in America!”
He also urged those gathered to attend today’s protest in Copley Square and “stand with our Muslim brothers and sisters.”