Black Lives Matter (BLM) activists protested President Donald Trump’s temporary immigration ban at a North Carolina airport Saturday.
BLM, joined by social justice group Charlotte Uprising, rallied at the Charlotte-Douglas International Airport in reaction to Trump’s executive order concerning refugees from seven Middle Eastern countries, reports WFAE.
Approximately 60 protesters stood by the baggage claim and shouted “No hate. No fear. Immigrants are welcome here.”
“Donald Trump is Donald Trump. He’s doing what he said he would do. It’s a resistance to that – to his policies – to him thinking that this is okay in our name,” Rev. Jay McKinnon, a protest organizer, said.
Trump issued an executive order Friday that put a temporary halt to refugee entrance for 120 days. Syrian refugees have been banned indefinitely, while people from Iraq, Syria, Iran, Sudan, Libya, Somalia and Yemen can’t enter the U.S. for the next 90 days.
Exceptions can be made on a case by case basis and Christian refugees have been prioritized.
The protest turned tense when the activists began yelling profanities at the police and demanding justice for the 2016 police shooting of a black man, Keith Lamont Scott. A small squabble broke out, with police eventually arresting six people for trespassing and resisting.
Police eventually got the remaining crowd to leave by 10:30 p.m.
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