They took to the streets two days after President Donald Trump signed an executive order that suspended the refugee resettlement program and the entry into the U.S. of citizens from seven Muslim-majority countries, including Syria, Libya and Somalia.
The crowd assembled at the First Unitarian Universalist Society, then marched along Church Street to City Hall Park. Marchers stepped off singing “This Land is Your Land,” and then chanted: “No hate! No fear! Refugees are welcome here!”
Several speakers addressed the crowd at the park, including Mayor Miro Weinberger; Susan Sussman, a caseworker from Senator Patrick Leahy’s (D-Vt.) office; Jay Diaz, a staff attorney with the Vermont chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union; and Community College of Vermont student Zeinab Bulle.
The loudest cheers were reserved for Diaz, as he told the crowd about the successful injunctions that ACLU attorneys secured on behalf of refugees and permanent residents reportedly detained at major airports, including John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City and Dulles International Airport in Washington, D.C. He also urged the crowd to report to the ACLU any problems that they might encounter at ports of entry.
City Councilor Joan Shannon led the crowd in chanting former president Barack Obama’s famous election campaign slogan, “Fired up, ready to go!” Others urged participants to fight racism and discrimination.
Bulle, who is from the Somali Bantu community, closed the event by telling the crowd: “I am proud to be Muslim. I fight for peace, and I am not a terrorist.”
There were no visible counter-protesters at the park. But two passers-by muttered, “Go home; go home,” and “Who cares a fuck,” to some of the marchers.
Speaking after the event, University of Vermont student Emily Foster said she’s heard many stories of Somali women “being harrassed, having their hijab pulled right off on North Street.” Foster, a Muslim convert who has many friends in the Somali community, added, “I think there’s a lot of unannounced racism that never gets reported.”
Hatem Barghathi and his wife, Salwa Elshawehdi, beamed as they watched the crowd walk back to the First Unitarian Universalist Society. Barghathi, who moved to the U.S. from Libya in 2008, said he was worried his family “would be picked up from the street and sent to a concentration camp.”
His family moved to Vermont from Missouri in August 2016 after he completed his PhD. He’s now in a post-doctoral program at the University of Vermont. He hasn’t been back to Libya to see his family in Benghazi in almost a decade, he said, because of the political turmoil that followed the fall of former leader Muammar Qaddafi.
“We were raised under a dictatorship … We feel better after seeing you all,” said Elshawehdi to a group of women who approached the couple after the march.
The gathering took place the day after a similar rally in Rutland. That city had expected to receive up to 100 Syrian and Iraqi refugees, and the first two Syrian families just arrived. But Trump’s executive order has scrapped that plan.
Carol Tashie, a member of Rutland Welcomes, a group that was set up to help Syrian refugees resettle in Rutland, told the crowd in Rutland that she had been touched by the generosity of the local community. “We cannot let darkness rule,” she said. “For darkness will only make our heart ache.”
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The grandmother of Jared Kushner (Senior Advisor to Trump and his son-in-law, and husband of Ivanka Trump) was a Polish Jewish Holocaust survivor and refugee who tried to emigrate to the US during a time in the late 1940’s when the US severely restricted the taking in of refugees, particularly Jews. Kushner is an absolute hypocrite to back these policies of his xenophobic father-in-law. A powerful article in The Nation has the details:
“Nobody Wanted to Take Us In: The Story of Jared Kushner’s Family”
https://www.thenation.com/article/nobody-w…
Looking at the photos of the refugee rallies around the country and the photos from the inauguration, it is clear that more people have attended the rallies than attended the inauguration. Now what does that tell Trump? Oh, I know he will have “”alternative facts..”
To all the people protesting I think it is great that you all are using your first amendment right to voice your concerns. Now I hope you are all aware that many of the people you are protesting in support of share none of your values. Even the most liberal of Muslims don’t agree with equal rights for women let alone any rights for homosexuals. So keep on yelling and screaming you heads off in support of people that would gladly cut your heads off. Its ok when you all become victims of a terror attack President Trump will come to your defence because even if you did not vote for him he is your president and he will make America safe for all of us. There is nothing wrong with a country knowing who is entering it’s boarders. I’m very aware that not many of you will agree with my statement but I was always taught that the popular thing is not always the right chioce and the right choice is not always popular. In this case I choose to be on the side of right over popular, and live in a safe country.
Well all these kind hearted people should invite all these refugees into their homes and support them for 5 yrs maybe 10 yrs seeing they want them so much..I’m with you citizen..great comment
I refuse to let fear trump my compassion for refugees.
Immigrants and refugees are what make U.S. great!
Rick Frauton yes I’m sure the people in the Boston Marathon, in April 2013, who lose their lives, body parts think these refugees are really great after being blown up..The Tsarnaev brothers,killed 4 people one was 8 yrs old, the 4th one was a police officer who was killed while sitting in his patrol car (3 days later by Tsamaev ) and they wounded 264 people..
I too fear ignorance. I fear the ignorance of people who flat refuse to acknowledge the truth. and see what really is happening by these so called “refugees” who has killed in our country..I’m not saying they are all bad but vetting (which is hard to do, countries don’t keep records) needs to be better, Vt refugee center can’t vet any better then the FBI, HOMELAND SECURITY, or the CIA and these 3 groups have stated that they can’t vet most of them..
Donna Boutin, ignorance is indeed a problem. It’s worth noting that the Tsarnaev brothers are from a country not on the banned list, and the home nations of the 9/11 attackers are also mostly not part of the “ban”. The problem people have with the ban is that it is indiscriminate in the ways that matter and discriminatory in harmful ways. The US already performs intense background investigations of prospective refugee immigrants, but no system will ever be 100% perfect. Of course, natural born white Americans kill far more people every year than refugees ever, ever will. Fundamentally, Trump’s ban is a gift to his racist supporters and those who are too afraid to consider facts and reason.