Pittsburgh Muslim ban protest

People in Pittsburgh march down Forbes Avenue in a crowd of 500 protesting President Donald Trump's executive order banning travel to the U.S. for people from Iraq, Iran, Syria, Sudan, Yemen, Somalia and Libya.

(Jacob Klinger/PennLive.com)

PITTSBURGH - About 500 people marched from Schenley Plaza to the Carnegie Mellon University quad on Saturday afternoon, protesting the executive order signed by President Donald Trump on Friday which placed a ban on immigration from seven majority-Muslim countries.

The order barred people from Iraq, Iran, Sudan, Yemen, Libya and Somalia who are not U.S. citizens from entering the country for 90 days. It banned entry for people from Syria indefinitely and suspended admission of refugees for 120 days in addition to cutting in half the number of refugees that will be accepted into the U.S. in fiscal year 2017 -- from 110,000 to 50,000.

Christians, and other religious minorities, are to be given priority over Muslims under the order.

American visa and and green card holders are included in the ban.

UPDATE: The federal court for the Eastern District of New York granted a stay of execution against the ban Saturday night

Pittsburgh chapters of the Jewish Voice for Peace, The Thomas Merton Center, Casa San Jose and The Answer Coalition responded with the organization of Saturday's march, which began at 2 p.m. and finished around 3:30 p.m. with a series of impromptu speeches being made via megaphone on the quad at CMU. Marchers also held signs protesting Trump's proposed wall on the Mexican border and his executive order directing federal agencies to defund sanctuary cities, such as Philadelphia.

Protests assembled around the country on Saturday in Philadelphia, New York, Denver and Los Angeles, among others.

Turmoil at JFK Airport as thousands protest Trump's visa and refugee suspensions: https://t.co/9qNEo2HjLB pic.twitter.com/akQMPkXZHx — PennLive.com (@PennLive) January 29, 2017

Christina Castillo, who helped organize the march on behalf of The Thomas Merton Center, said her organization, Casa San Jose and The Answer are advocating for Pittsburgh to become a sanctuary city and for Allegheny County to become a sanctuary county.

As protesters gathered around a circle of grass in front of the Purnerll Center for the Arts, Dan Galvin, a teacher and Army veteran from 2002-05 who served in Iraq, made the first speech.

There was more Spanish than English spoken in his squadron in Iraq, he said. His fellow soldiers came from Mexico, for instance, and the Dominican Republic.

"The people who come to this country, they want to serve it, and for us and this administration to now turn our back on them is a slap in the face to their service and those people who I worked alongside and they were told they were doing what they were told would help this country," Galvin, 33, said. "We need to stand up for those people. We need to up for the people who are making our coutnry what it is and making it run. And those people don't all speak English."

Afterward, Galvin said he felt an obligation as a veteran to speak at the end of the march.

He said he did so - in an Army fatigue jacket - to make the friends he made in the military who didn't speak English feel safe and to stand against a stereotype.

"A lot of people think that people who protest are not patriotic, that they don't want to serve their country," Galvin said, "that they don't want to protect their rights."

Tayfun Gol, of The Answer, followed Galvin's speech by saying poor and working people of the U.S. had more in common with those they were fighting in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere than corporations that profit from foreign wars.

Democratic Socialists of America, the International Socialist Organization and the Council on American-Islamic Relations were informally involved in getting people to the protest.

Community organizers said they had long planned a protest through the city, but only made plans for Saturday afternoon on Thursday, when they saw copies of the executive order leaked to Vox.

Speakers finished the demonstration by urging attendees to stay organized against the Trump administration beyond marches. Castillo said local organizers will participate in a national day of action for immigrants and refugees on Tuesday with the Pennsylvania Immigration and Citizenship Coalition.

Attendees said they found out about the protest through social media, including 21-year-old Pitt student Alex Fajgier who said he saw a posting for the march from the Pittsburgh Student Solidarity Coalition and decided to attend.

"I've been trying to get into being politically active and not just thinking it, but actually living it," Fajgier said.

Castillo said she anticipated a counter-protest, but didn't find one at the march. An organizer contacted Pittsburgh police 10 minutes before the march began to notify them of their route, she said.

Police on motorcyles escorted the march down Forbes Avenue.

No arrests occurred in connection to or surrounding the march, according to Pittsburgh police.