New York’s LaGuardia airport saw a large-scale protest on Wednesday night when word got around that unaccompanied migrant children were being flown in. CNN reports that dozens of demonstrators gathered in the terminal buildings; they held signs with messages of support written in Spanish and English. The protesters also sang civil rights songs such as “We Shall Overcome” and “Ain’t Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me Around.” Brian Stelter wrote on twitter that these demonstrations were very reminiscent of the travel ban protests in February of 2017.
Cristina Jimenez, co-founder and executive director of United We Dream, told CNN, “We are here in LaGuardia because many of these young immigrants who have been criminalized and separated from their families were put on flights and sent to other parts of the country, including here in New York.”
I’m at LaGuardia airport in NYC. Youth & children separated from their families are landing in terminal B taken to shelters in Westchester & LI. @AmericanAir must stop enabling Trump’s deportation force. #FreedomForImmigrants #AbolishICE pic.twitter.com/1YsmKj7c6R
— Cristina Jimenez (@CrisAlexJimenez) June 21, 2018
According to The Washington Post, “although demonstrators had yet to see children deplaning by 1 a.m., the crowd of approximately 300 remained at the airport.” They stuck around all the way into the early hours of Thursday morning, without seeing the young migrants.
Nonetheless, many migrant children have been shipped to New York “under cover of darkness.” Bill de Blasio, mayor of New York, has said that around 350 unaccompanied migrant children have already been processed by a Harlem-based social services agency under contract with the federal government. The New York Times found that 239 of those kids are currently in the care of this institution. “How is it possible that none of us knew that there were 239 kids right here in our own city,” the mayor asked,
“I believe that we will win!” Protesters at LaGuardia Airport chanted while greeting refugee children separated from parents. This is the America I know and love. This is who we truly are. And yes, in the end, we will win. Period. #TheResistance ?? pic.twitter.com/IDy7IKbYP0
— Scott Dworkin (@funder) June 21, 2018
Although President Trump has signed an executive order ending the separation of migrant families, there is still no plan in place for returning the children to their parents. New York Magazine reports that “federal officials said they would make no special effort to reunite the 2,300 children who have already been taken from their families.”
URGENT CALL to all in the NYC vicinity: Planes are still arriving TONIGHT(after midnight) at LaGuardia Airport RIGHT NOW w/ children taken from their parents at the border. Need ppl at LGA to document/protest this travesty. My crew is there. Activist groups have sent out the call https://t.co/oIqdjsaQv0
— Michael Moore (@MMFlint) June 21, 2018