Protesters rally at McCarran against Trump travel ban on immigrants, refugees

More than 100 protesters demonstrated inside a McCarran International Airport terminal Sunday against the Trump administration’s travel ban on immigrants and refugees from seven countries.

The Nevada chapter of the National Organization for Women organized the rally with the Nevada chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union. Protesters carried signs reading, “What happened to #All Lives Matter,” “First they come for the Muslims,” and “Expect Us Again.” The chanted, “Hey, hey. Ho, ho. Donald Trump has got to go,” and “Never again is happening now.” The demonstration lasted about four hours.

Several Democratic officials joined the protesters in opposing the ban on Sunday, but Nevada Republican leaders expressed the need for stronger borders and better vetting of foreigners entering the country.

Trump’s executive order would keep refugees, and anyone else from Iraq, Iran, Syria, Somalia, Sudan or Yemen from entering the United States for 90 days and calls to suspend entry by Syrian refugees for an undefined period. A federal judge in Brooklyn issued an emergency stay of the order Saturday evening, halting the threat of deportations.

Protesters repeatedly asked for a response from airport officials, although the airport and U.S. Customs and Border Protection operate separately.

It was the second day protesters had gathered at McCarran, but Saturday’s demonstration was scuttled for lack of approval from airport officials. On Sunday, about 10 Metropolitan Police Department officers stood watch over the protest but didn’t interfere. Airport Chief Marketing Officer Chris Jones said the demonstration was orderly and incident-free.

U.S. Rep. Ruben Kihuen, D-Nev., and state Sen. Aaron Ford, D-Las Vegas, spoke to demonstrators gathered at Terminal 3, which handles international flights.

Kihuen said, “What they’re doing to these people, detaining them at the airport, is not only illegal, it’s unconstitutional and it’s un-American.”

Speaking through a megaphone, immigration lawyer Hardeep Sull told the crowd. “We do not shun people off our borders.”

Walla Dabbagh, a Muslim Syrian immigrant, said she canceled an appointment to join the protest, saying she was touched by the airport protests she has seen erupt throughout the country.

She said she was “disgusted” by the president’s executive order.

“To see it, it makes me afraid that the American dream that I grew up on, the freedom I felt like I always had, was not true — was just a lie,” she said.

Teresa Raih said the protest was not just a showing of solidarity for Muslims and refugees, but a banding together for people of all cultural and ethnic backgrounds.

“It’s just a diversity in the country that is being so strongly ripped apart,” Raih said. “And that’s what makes America so great.”

Away from the airport, Clark County Commission Chairman Steve Sisolak, a Democrat, said Sunday that he opposes any ban of immigrants and refugees.

“I’m in favor of vetting individuals that are coming here … but I am not in favor of a ban on any country,” he said.

Sisolak said he hadn’t read the executive order, but had followed news reports about it. He noted the detention of a Henderson couple for roughly 10 hours at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport on Saturday while returning from a trip to Iran for their son’s wedding. The couple are legal residents.

“I understand the president is anxious to get things done, but I urge thoughtfulness in doing so,” Sisolak said. “There are unintended consequences to what he’s doing currently and innocent people have been caught up in this executive order.”

On Sunday, Viridiana Vidal, an immigration activist and Nevada state director for the political group America’s Voice, reiterated what McCarran airport officials had confirmed the day before: that no one had been detained there because of the executive action.

In a series of posts Sunday night on Twitter, U.S. Sen. Dean Heller, R-Nev., said, “I share the President’s desire to protect our nation from harm. I agree that better vetting and border protection measures are necessary. That’s why I support the thorough vetting of individuals entering our country.

“However, I am deeply troubled by the appearance of (a) religious ban,” Heller added. “The use of an overly broad executive order is not the way to strengthen national security. I encourage the Administration to partner with Congress to find a solution.”

Late Saturday, U.S. Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., issued a statement criticizing Trump’s order.

“President Trump’s latest executive order would essentially enact his unconstitutional Muslim ban,” she said. “This type of religious discrimination is wrong and ineffective … all it accomplishes is stirring up bigotry and violence against American Muslims, alienating our Muslim allies across the world, and helping terrorist organizations like ISIS recruit new supporters. Make no mistake, these executive orders make our country less safe.”

Nevada Assemblyman Chris Edwards, R-Las Vegas, by contrast, supported Trump’s order. He said Sunday that he thinks the stay granted by Judge Ann Donnelly of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York “disregards the safety of Americans.”

On Saturday, Edwards said he would support the Trump administration if it decided green card holders from the seven affected countries needed to be barred temporarily. As the Trump administration began to soften its stance on the green card holder issue, Edwards said Sunday that he believes that policy makes sense as long as the residents are “properly vetted.”

“I think it needs to be constantly emphasized — the thing they’re trying to do is keep the bad guys out,” Edwards said. “I think it would be nice if all of these radicals on the left would give it some time to work.”

State Sen. Pete Goicoechea, R-Eureka, said he hasn’t sorted through the Trump order’s complexities and will wait for it to “come a little bit farther” before commenting in depth. Nevertheless, he said the United States needs “to tighten up our borders and our vetting process.”

“You have to make sure the people coming in with these green cards and visas are who they say they are,” he said.

Review-Journal writers Pashtana Usufzy and Max Michor contributed to this report. Contact Blake Apgar at bapgar@reviewjournal.com. Follow @blakeapgar on Twitter.