Senators Elizabeth Warren of
Massachusetts and Cory Booker of New Jersey and New York
Representative Jerry Nadler were among the Democrats who attended
protests Saturday against President Donald Trump's executive order on
immigration.
The president's order, signed Friday,
targets the Muslim community by barring Syrian refugees from entering
the United States indefinitely and blocking citizens from seven
predominantly Muslim nations for 90 days. Those countries are Iran,
Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen. The order also blocks
entry of all refugees to the United States for 120 days.
As stories of people being detained at
airports around the nation surfaced, spontaneous protests against
Trump's order sprung up, mostly at airports.
Warren attended such a protest at
Boston's Logan International Airport.
“We have all heard about this order
that President Trump has given. It is illegal. It is
unconstitutional. It will be overturned,” Warren told the crowd.
“An attack on anyone for their religious beliefs is an attack on
the very foundation of democracy.”
Booker spoke at Washington Dulles
International Airport.
“We must stand as witness,” Booker
said. “We stand as resistors. We must stand in opposition to what
others are trying to do to violate the law, the constitution, and our
values.”
Nadler successfully intervened in at
least one case out of New York City's John F. Kennedy Airport, where
security held Hameed Khalid Darweesh and his family for 19 hours.
Darweesh, who worked as a translator for American troops in Iraq, was
granted a special immigrant visa.
“These are people who helped our
military,” Nadler told PEOPLE. “They certainly are not
dangerous.”
A federal judge on Saturday issued a
partial halt to Trump's order, but did not rule on its
constitutionality.
(Related: Trump's
immigration order blocked as officials begin detaining refugees.)