Teke Wiggin
Thousands showed up at a rally in New York City to protest xenophobic comments by the President of the United States, January 15, 2018.
New York City immigrants from countries allegedly labeled “shitholes” by Donald Trump sent a message to the President on Monday: They won’t take any of his crap.
Foreign-born workers and other protesters turned out for a Martin Luther King Day rally in Times Square, where politicians, labor leaders, and activists lambasted the President’s treatment of immigrants and called for measures to protect them from deportation.
The event was organized by a coalition of community groups and unions to protest Trump’s recent comments questioning why he should accept immigrants from “shithole countries,” an expletive he reportedly used to refer to Haiti and some African countries. (Trump has denied the remarks and told a reporter Sunday that he’s “the least racist person you have interviewed.”)
“You cannot say that to a nation,” a young Haitian man who would only give his first name, “Don,” told The Progressive, between cheering with two female compatriots at the rally. “The President right now is a racist.”
Speakers at the event demanded the reversal of a number of recent actions by the administration that threaten the residency of around one million immigrants. Congressional representatives at another event uptown said they would seek to formally censure the President for his words.
Protesters massed in at least two blocks stretching south from Broadway and 42nd Street. Some waved Haitian and American flags, while others toted signs with messages such as “Build bridges not walls,” “Stop the billionaire bigot,” and “People from ‘shithole countries’ make America great.” A spokeswoman for the 1199 chapter of the Service Employees International Union estimated that thousands were in attendance.
“People from ‘shithole countries’ make America great.”
Amid roars of solidarity and outrage, Mayor Bill de Blasio, U.S. Representative Hakeem Jeffries, New York State Nurses Association President Judy Sheridan-Gonzalez, and other speakers publicly repudiated Trump’s nativistic comments and policies, and hailed the country’s diversity as a source of strength and national pride.
De Blasio challenged Americans who support Trump’s immigration policies to consider their family history. “If these same standards were applied to your ancestors, you wouldn’t be in this country,” he said.
Speakers urged Americans to follow Martin Luther King’s example and take direct action against the Trump Administration. Some also emphasized the importance of advocating for worker rights alongside civil rights, pointing out that King often focused on the connection between the two. (King was assassinated during a campaign in which he supported striking sanitation workers.)
“A basic principle of our union is workers’ unity,” said David Kranz, a member of SEIU 1199, a large U.S. health care union that Dr. King reportedly once called “the authentic conscience of the labor movement.”
“This attack is an attack on all of us,” Kranz said.
Activists sounded similar themes at an annual King Day celebration that took place uptown in Harlem.
Flanked by a portrait of Dr. King in the headquarters of the National Action Network, local congressman Adriano Espaillat told a spirited crowd, "our soul is challenged as a nation by folks that choose to speak in terms that … border on inciting a riot.”
“When you speak those terms in public, you are responsible for the actions that you unleash,” Espaillat said.
The representative added that he would throw his weight behind a resolution slated to be unveiled this week by Democratic house members Jerrold Nadler and Cedric Richmond to censure Trump over his recent comments.
Sitting next to his wife and daughter and wearing a Black Panthers t-shirt, Benjamin Demas said he has controlled his anger over Trump’s race-tinged remarks. “You have to know you’re dealing with an ignorant president,” he explained.
Teke Wiggin
Benjamin and Desiree Demas at a commemoration celebration for Martin Luther King, Jr. “You have to know you’re dealing with an ignorant president,” Benjamin explained.
“The red is for the blood that was shed,” he said, pointing to his pan-African scarf. “Green is for the land we worked as slaves; the black is our color.”
Speakers at the two events advocated for legislation that would protect young, undocumented workers from deportation. So-called “Dreamers” were previously shielded by the Deferred Action Childhood Arrivals program, but Trump announced the program would end in March.
A bipartisan group of Senators recently reached a deal that would provide a path to citizenship for Dreamers, but Trump dismissed the proposal Friday, in part, because he said the bill wouldn’t provide adequate funding for a border wall.
Activists also demanded the reversal of recent actions by the administration to end the “Temporary Protected Status” of 200,000 Salvadorians, 60,000 Haitians and 2,500 Nicaraguans in 2019. The groups were granted provisional residency after fleeing natural disasters in their home countries.
“The decision to end TPS [Temporary Protected Status]” for these populations reveals Trump’s “xenophobic heart,” said Rodman Serrano, an activist with the Latino advocacy group Make the Road New York, who spoke at the Times Square protest. Serrano called himself the “proud son” of Salvadorian parents whose TPS protection is set to end.
Organizers of the progressive movement, Indivisible, are calling for those who want to shield Dreamers to contact their representatives and urge them to withhold their support for a short-term government funding bill that is up for a vote this Friday—unless the bill includes protections for Dreamers.
Teke Wiggin is a freelance Brooklyn-based reporter who covers labor, technology and housing. Follow him at @tkwiggin.