Legal experts question the constitutionality of Trump’s immigration order, while protesters, activists, and businesses fight for refugee rights.
By Kate Wheeling
Demonstrators protest Donald Trump’s immigration ban at O’Hare International Airport on January 29th, 2017, in Chicago, Illinois. (Photo: Joshua Lott/AFP/Getty Images)
At 4:42 p.m. Eastern Standard Time on Friday, President Donald Trump signed an executive order blocking refugees from coming to the United States for 120 days, banning Syrian refugees indefinitely, and revoking access to visitors from select, predominantly Muslim countries for 90 days. Chaos ensued. Protests erupted at several airports across the U.S., including those in Los Angeles, Dallas, San Francisco, and New York City.
Those in support of the ban claim the measure will “make America safe again”; opponents called the ban cruel and unconstitutional. Experts agree that the ban may do more harm than good. “By dehumanizing minority group members in word and deed, Trump’s rhetoric and policies may promote the very actions that they purport to prevent,” professors Nour Kteily and Emile Bruneau wrote in the Washington Post.
Here’s a by-the-numbers look at the effects of Trump’s immigration order so far, in the days after it took effect:
- 7: The number of countries—Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen—from which visitors are prohibited for at least 90 days.
- 1: The number of days that passed before a federal judge blocked part of Trump’s order, preventing the government from deporting those who already had valid visas or refugee status.
- 109: The number of people detained at airports and held for questioning over the weekend, according to Trump.
- 173:The number of people who were stopped over the weekend before boarding flights to the U.S.
- 10,000: The number of refugees Starbucks pledged to hire in response to Trump’s executive order.
- 356,306: The number of people who made online donations to the American Civil Liberties Union over the weekend, totaling $24 million for the organization.
- $581,435: The amount of money raised for Syrian refugees over the weekend by actor Kal Penn, to be donated, according to the actor’s crowdfunding page, “in the name of the dude who said I don’t belong in America.”
- $3,000,000: The amount Uber CEO Travis Kalanick pledged to a legal defense fund for drivers affected by the ban (only after the company was accused of strikebreaking at John F. Kennedy International Airport when the New York Taxi Workers Alliance stopped running to the airport in a show of solidarity with protestors, and the hashtag #DeleteUber began trending).
- $4,000,000: The amount of money pledged by Google and its employees for the ACLU, Immigrant Legal Resource Center, International Rescue Committee, and the United Nations’ refugee agency.
