UC San Diego Students Protest Trump’s Refugee, Immigration Ban

LA JOLLA, CA – Hundreds of UC San Diego students marched across the La Jolla campus Monday against President Donald Trump's executive order banning refugees and immigrants from seven Muslim-majority countries.

The demonstration came a day after roughly 2,000 protesters jammed Terminal 2 at Lindbergh Field in San Diego to oppose the travel ban. The UCSD students carried signs and chanted "Move, Trump, get out the way" and "No hate, no fear, refugees are welcome here." They also expressed opposition against Trump's plan to build a wall along the border with Mexico.

"As Trump signs and enforces these executive orders, inspired by xenophobia and racism, several of our peers, classmates, colleagues and students are seeing their lives fundamentally and irrevocably changed," organizers stated in a post prior to the event on the UCSD Students Against Muslim Ban Facebook page. "We will not scapegoat and discriminate against communities, and we will not be silent or complacent as the Trump administration villainizes and jeopardizes the lives of entire groups of people."

According to the event page, the protestors handed out fliers at 11:30 a.m. on Library Walk, and then gathered into their group at noon and chanted by the silent tree. By about 12:30 p.m., they marched over to Revelle College, where there were speakers, performances, a discussion and chants.

"This is how we show the Trump administration and Congress that we do not stand for these discriminatory and unconstitutional policies and orders,"organizers said on Facebook.

At the heart of the matter was Trump's executive order, which indefinitely banned all refugees from Syria entering the United States. The order also blocked all refugee admissions for 120 days, as well as stopped all refugee and non-refugee entries from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Yemen and Syria for 90 days.

The national office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations filed a federal lawsuit in Virginia on Monday challenging the constitutionality of Trump's order, which the White House defends as a step in preventing potential terrorists from entering the country. A lawsuit was also filed by the state of Washington.

The San Diego CAIR chapter planned a news conference for Tuesday to discuss the president's action.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection did not respond to an inquiry into the number of people detained or prevented from entering the country in San Diego County. However, officials with the local chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union said they were trying to confirm a report that someone was stopped at an area border crossing. It did not appear that any travelers were detained for additional screening at Lindbergh Field, according to the ACLU.

White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer told reporters that despite all the uproar, only about 100 travelers out of about 320,000 visitors were stopped nationwide.

"It's a shame that people were inconvenienced, obviously, but at the end of the day we're talking about a couple of hours," Spicer said.

"I'm sorry that some folks may have had to await a little while, but I think the president would much rather know that he's not placing a call to someone who was killed because someone was let in this country to commit a terrorist act."

He added, "Coming into the this country is still a privilege. We're the greatest country on Earth. Being able to come to America is a privilege, not a right. And it is our duty and it's the president's goal to make sure that everybody who comes into this country – to the best of our ability – is here because they want to enjoy this country and come in peacefully."

In Sacramento, state legislators debated a resolution opposing Trump's order.

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Protestors Against Trump's Refugee, Immigration Ban Gather At Lindbergh Field In San Diego

City News Service contributed to this report.

Image by Four via Wikipedia, under Creative Common