JFK Airport Protest Erupts After 20 Immigrants Blocked From Entering U.S. (UPDATES)

JOHN F. KENNEDY INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT, NY — At least 1,000 protesters rallied outside the Terminal 4 arrival hall Saturday night, reacting to news that more than a dozen immigrants and refugees had been detained at JFK Airport under Donald Trump's new executive order to block immigration from certain Muslim countries. (To keep up with the chaotic situation at JFK, sign up to receive Patch's daily newsletter and real-time news alerts for your NYC neighborhood.)

Chants of "Let them in! Let them in!" could be heard from inside the airport.

UPDATE, 9:30 p.m.: A federal judge in Brooklyn has temporarily halted Trump's Muslim immigration ban. Immigrants detained at JFK may be released soon. More information here. Meanwhile, another protest is planned for 2 p.m. Sunday in Battery Park.

Protesters began arriving to JFK around noon Saturday. And by around 7:30 p.m., so many new protesters were showing up to JFK that AirTrain shuttles between terminals were halted "for public safety, due to crowding conditions," according to airport officials.

However, AirTrain service was restored by 8:15 p.m. — on direct order from New York State Gov. Andrew Cuomo. "The people of New York will have their voices heard," the governor said.

The approximately 20 people detained at JFK by nightfall included a PhD candidate at Stony Brook University and the Iranian parents of another Stony Brook student, according to attorneys with the International Refugee Assistance Project.

"I just want to see them, just for one minute," the student, Sahar, said as she broke down in tears. Read her story here.

Trump's executive order, signed Friday, bans people from certain countries from entering the U.S. for 90 days. The countries were not named in the order, but several news outlets reported them as Iraq, Libya, Syria, Somalia, Iran, Yemen and Sudan. The order also indefinitely suspends the entry of Syrian refugees and bans the resettlement of refugees from any country for four months.

Most of the JFK detainees were Iranians — and some Iraqis and Yemenis — whose visas had been valid while they were in flight, attorneys said. However, the visas were apparently voided as soon as Trump signed his order.

Hundreds more protesters also gathered outside Brooklyn's federal courthouse Saturday evening, awaiting an expected announcement from court officials on the fate of the detainees:

At JFK, outside Terminal 4, protest chants included "Hey hey, JFK, no more fascist USA!"; "Hey hey, ho ho, the Muslim ban has got to go!"; and "No ban, no wall, Donald Trump has got to fall."

A dozen or so volunteer lawyers gathered around a small power station in JFK's Terminal 1 on Saturday evening, frantically pumping out habeas petitions to file in Brooklyn federal court for the seven immigrants they said were detained in that terminal — with just hours to go before some of their return flights were scheduled to take off.

"None of the attorneys have been able to meet with anyone" who was detained, a rep for the International Refugee Assistance Project said.

Family members of the detainees waited anxiously in various JFK terminals into the night, waiting for word on the fate of their loved ones.

"I woke up like all of you, sick to my stomach, knowing that I had to be here today in solidarity with our Muslim brothers and sisters," City Council Member Carlos Menchaca, chair of the council's immigration committee and a representative for Brooklyn's immigrant-heavy Sunset Park neighborhood, said outside the airport Saturday morning.

"We will fight — we will stay until everyone is released," Menchaca said. "These are our families. They came for Jews, and they're coming for our Muslim brothers and sisters."

Dozens more protesters were arriving to Terminal 4 by the minute on Saturday evening, responding in large part to a call from the ACLU for a 6 p.m. rally and vigil.

Security was thick inside the airport. And outside, dozens officers from multiple agencies — the New York State Police, the Port Authority Police, the NYPD — surrounded the growing crowd of protesters.

Many of the cars driving past honked their support. "I'm Facebook Live-ing this!" said one driver, sticking her phone out the window as she drove by.

Airport taxi drivers also joined Saturday's call to action by refusing to pick up anyone outside JFK between 6 p.m. and 7 p.m., their union said.

Reports were coming in Saturday of dozens more people detained at airports around the country.

The ACLU originally filed a lawsuit Saturday morning on behalf of two immigrants detained at JFK: Hameed Khalid Darweesh and Haider Sameer Abdulkhaleq Alshawi, both from Iraq.

Darweesh worked on behalf of the U.S. in Iraq for 10 years and holds a visa, the lawsuit said. Alshawi was coming to America to join his wife and young son, who live in Houston.

After pressure from politicians and protesters, Darweesh was eventually released from detention Saturday afternoon. And Alshawi, too, was reportedly released by nightfall.

"This is the humanity, this is the soul of America," Darweesh said when he saw the crowd waiting for him outside JFK.

U.S. Rep. Jerry Nadler, one of the first politicians to show up to the airport Saturday, was present to welcome Darweesh to America. He called Trump's anti-immigrant order "discriminatory" and "quite disgusting," and said it "goes against every ounce of our traditions."

Photos by Simone Wilson/Patch. With reporting by John V. Santore and Feroze Dhanoa