Facebook Instagram Twitter YouTube

Workers and Activists Fight Back Against Detentions of Muslims

Workers and activists fight back against Trump by protesting at airports across the country. They have already won a partial victory.

Robert Belano

January 29, 2017
Facebook Twitter Share

Image from The Gaurdian

Dozens of Muslim immigrants were detained at airports across the country on Saturday after President Trump signed an executive order banning travel into the U.S. from seven majority-Muslim nations. It is clear that Trump intends to carry out, to the best of his ability, his racist and draconian campaign promise to ban Muslim immigrants from entering the country. At the same time, he has suggested that he would allow Christian refugees from these countries to enter.

Trump’s order and today’s detention of Muslim immigrants, nearly all of whom reportedly hold U.S. green cards or visas, has sparked outrage across the country. Hundreds of people have mobilized in only a few hours’ time to airports in New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Philadelphia and elsewhere to demand the release of all detainees and an end to Trump’s Muslim ban. Demonstrators shouted “Let them in!” and held signs reading “No Ban. No Wall” and “Refugees Welcome.”

The protests have already won a partial victory. Saturday night, a federal judge issued an injunction that would prevent the deportation of the detainees the time being. However, the court order is expected to affect only 100-200 Muslims who are currently detained in the U.S. It does not affect the ban on the thousands of Muslim refugees and immigrants who are currently abroad.

In an show of solidarity with detainees, New York taxi drivers held a one-hour work stoppage, refusing to pick up any passengers at JFK. While still limited in scope, the drivers showed that worker solidarity will be critical to a successful fightback against Trump’s reactionary campaign against Muslims and immigrants.

Facebook Twitter Share

Robert Belano

Robert Belano is a writer and editor for Left Voice. He lives in the Washington, DC area.

United States

What “The Daily” Gets Right and Wrong about Oregon’s Move to Recriminalize Drugs

A doctor at an overdose-prevention center responds to The Daily, a podcast produced by the New York Times, on the recriminalization of drugs in Oregon. What are the true causes of the addiction crisis, and how can we solve it?

Mike Pappas

March 22, 2024
Former president Donald Trump standing at a podium in front of American flags.

To Stop Trump, We Need Much More Democracy, Not Less

Democrats have been trying to kick Trump off the ballot as an "insurrectionist." Liberals say we have to restrict democracy in order to save it. As socialists, we think they have it backwards: to beat the Far Right, we need a mass movement fighting for radical democracy.

Nathaniel Flakin

March 18, 2024

New Jersey Democrats Attack the Public’s Right to Government Records

The New Jersey state assembly, led by the Democratic Party, just tried to fast-track a bill that would have gutted the Open Public Records Act. This is a reminder that their party is an obstacle, not an ally, in the fight to preserve democracy.

Samuel Karlin

March 15, 2024
President Biden giving his State of the Union speech at a podium in March, 2024.

Biden’s State of the Union: Hyper-Nationalism and Eroding Legitimacy

President Biden’s hyper-nationalistic State of the Union speech focused on selling himself as a defender of democracy at home and abroad. But it’s not enough to solve his — and the whole U.S. regime’s — crisis of legitimacy.

Tatiana Cozzarelli

March 14, 2024

MOST RECENT

A square in Argentina is full of protesters holding red banners

48 Years After the Military Coup, Tens of Thousands in Argentina Take to the Streets Against Denialism and the Far Right

Tens of thousands of people took to the streets across Argentina on March 24 to demand justice for the victims of the state and the military dictatorship of 1976. This year, the annual march had renewed significance, defying the far-right government’s denialism and attacks against the working class and poor.

Madeleine Freeman

March 25, 2024

The Convulsive Interregnum of the International Situation

The capitalist world is in a "permacrisis" — a prolonged period of instability which may lead to catastrophic events. The ongoing struggles for hegemony could lead to open military conflicts.

Claudia Cinatti

March 22, 2024

Berlin’s Mayor Loves Antisemites

Kai Wegner denounces the “antisemitism” of left-wing Jews — while he embraces the most high-profile antisemitic conspiracy theorist in the world.

Nathaniel Flakin

March 22, 2024

Lord Balfour Was an Imperialist Warmonger 

We should give our full solidarity to the Palestine Action comrade who defaced a portrait of Arthur Balfour at Cambridge University. But the problem for everyone who opposes the genocide against Gaza is how to massify and politically equip the movement.

Daniel Nath

March 21, 2024