MINNEAPOLIS — A large crowd filled the plaza in front of the Federal Courts building in Minneapolis Tuesday afternoon to protest President Donald Trump’s recent executive order placing limits on immigration.
At least 1,000 people showed up at the 4:30 p.m. start of the planned rally, and by the time they began marching, Minneapolis Police estimated that the demonstrators numbered about 5,000.
Police shut down traffic to accommodate demonstrators who carried signs and chanted. Calls for Trump’s impeachment alternated with chants supportive of refugees who have moved to Minnesota from countries around the world.
“Trump is trying to punish cities,” said Minneapolis Mayor Betsy Hodges, who added. “Not on my watch.”
Amid calls of “We Must Resist,” a huge cheer went up for Jaylani Hussein, executive director of the Minnesota chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, who said they will file lawsuits until they can’t anymore. Hussein called the refugee travel ban a ban on Muslims, an assertion that the Trump administration has denied.
The travel ban temporarily halts the entry into the United States of refugees from seven countries with predominantly Muslim populations: Iran, Iraq, Syria, Somalia, Sudan, Libya and Yemen.
“I am not a foreigner in my own home,” Susana de Leon, an immigrant rights attorney, told the crowd
The demonstrators marched through parts of downtown, blocking streets along the way.
First Published: February 1, 2017, 5:48 a.m.