More than 1,000 Yemeni-owned grocery and convenience stores in New York City closed their doors at noon on Thursday in protest at Donald Trump’s temporary ban on immigration from Yemen and six other Muslim-majority nations.

New York Yemenis stunned by Trump's ban: 'I feel like somebody has killed me' Read more

“We have a strong community here in downtown Brooklyn so we have to close and just show the people that we can change anything,” said Abdul Kareem, who owns the Cobble Hill Deli in Brooklyn. Kareem has owned the store for 12 years and has been living and working in the US for more than 24 years.

“This shutdown of grocery stores and bodegas will be a public show of the vital role these grocers and their families play in New York’s economic and social fabric and, during this period, grocery store owners will spend time with their families and loved ones to support each other; many of these families have been directly affected by the Ban,” the strike organizers said in a statement.

Kareem’s wife and four children are just a few of the hundreds of Yemeni nationals and US visa holders who were stranded in the small African nation of Djibouti due to Trump’s controversial executive order.

“They should have had a visa last week and now they are denied,” Kareem said. “So now we have to wait at least 90 days, then we will see what’s what.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest People participate in a Yemeni protest against President Donald Trump’s travel ban at Borough Hall in Brooklyn on Thursday. Photograph: Stephanie Keith/Reuters

Yemenis staged a revolt in 2011, part of the Arab spring protests that reshaped Middle Eastern politics, and in the aftermath the nation plunged into civil war. For years, refugees have been escaping across the Gulf of Aden to Djibouti. Kareem said he began the process of trying to get his family to join him via the US embassy in Djibouti three years ago, and hasn’t seen his family in almost as long.

“I used to go every year, but when the war started …” Kareem trailed off.

Thousands of Yemeni immigrants own, operate or work in one of the ubiquitous corner stores, known as bodegas, that dot New York’s five boroughs.

Shawna Laken Klein (@shawnalaken) At my local bodega. #bodega #bodegastrike pic.twitter.com/SGP4j36qHG

Kareem said the potential lost revenue from closing down in the middle of the day was worth it.

“I hope we are going to get a lot of people because we are a big community – we have almost 1,500 bodegas,” Kareem said.

At Brooklyn’s Borough Hall, Yemini Americans began gathering in the mid-afternoon for an evening rally. Thanks to social media, support for the protest had rapidly spread beyond New York, as the hashtag #Bodegastrike began trending.

Dr.Debbie Almontaser (@DebbiAlmontaser) In tears at the amazing turn out for #BodegaStrike by Yemenis and it's only 3pm. pic.twitter.com/JbFbPHwZLJ

The crowd waved as many American flags as Yemeni ones, perhaps more. Sporadic chants of “USA, USA” broke out repeatedly, earning enthusiastic cheers. At 5.15pm, Muslim demonstrators conducted Maghrib or sunset prayer, filing into rows while the Adhan blared over loudspeakers from the steps of Borough Hall.

“We have a lot of people back in our country who are stuck there and the only place they can come is here, all their family is here. Banning them is like banning us, just kicking us out,” said Amjed Alseidi, a high school student who was born in Yemen and moved to New York when he was 10.

“My mom just came back from there. If he banned them a week before, she would have been stuck,” Amjed added. Other members of his family who are still in Yemen are in the process of applying for visas, but under Trump their prospects are very much uncertain.

Like most of the Yemeni Americans at the rally, Amjed’s family owns and works in a Brooklyn Bodega. “My dad, my uncle, my dad’s cousins, his friends. They’re all from Yemen and they all closed.”

After the prayer concluded, a slew of city officials addressed the crowd with brief remarks. “This is a country built by immigrants. Together we are strong and we will let this administration know they can’t build walls,” said the city’s public advocate, Letitia James.

New York City comptroller Scott Stringer took a more strident tone against the administration: “You as the president have an obligation to support the constitution ... When you disregard the constitution, it’s time to impeach!”

Trump’s executive order placed a 90-day moratorium on immigration from seven majority-Muslim countries, including refugees and people holding valid travel visas, to allow for what the administration called “extreme vetting”. The move sparked protests at airports nationwide where more than 100 travelers from the affected countries were held over the weekend in what many, including Republican lawmakers have described as a chaotic rollout.