COLUMBUS – Hundreds of people reportedly gathered at John Glenn Columbus International Airport on Sunday, carrying signs and banners protesting President Donald Trump’s temporary ban on immigrants from seven Muslim-majority countries.
.@OhioState remains engaged on this issue w/ elected officials & national higher education orgs. https://t.co/P2Pf7JbsVo
— Michael V. Drake (@UCPrezDrake) January 30, 2017
An Ohio State graduate student’s wife, who was detained and released in New York, university president Dr. Michael Drake said in a statement in which he said OSU would not release personal data on students to third parties “except as required by law.” University of Michigan officials issued a similar statement over the weekend.
“The university’s established and consistently applied policies hold that we do not release personal data to third parties except as required by law. We admit students without regard to race, religion, national origin or immigration status, and undocumented students are entitled to all of the rights and privileges of other students at Ohio State.” –OSU Pres. Dr. Michael Drake
An internal medicine resident at the Cleveland Clinic was among those refused entry to the US — Suha Abushamma, has been employed at the hospital since July on a work visa. The 26-year-old doctor from Cleveland Heights tells Cleveland.com she was detained in New York Saturday, while trying to return from a trip to Saudi Arabia, and put back on a plane to the Middle East.
Abushamma is Muslim and a citizen of Sudan, one of the seven Muslim-majority countries affected by Trump’s temporary ban on entering the United States.
She told the news outlet she planned to be in the Middle East for three weeks but cut the trip short after hearing Trump was proposing the order.
While one White House official called Trump’s immigration restrictions “a massive success story” there were protests at airports in Ohio and across the country over the weekend after the imposition of temporary travel bans on people from seven Muslim-majority countries, including Syria, Iran and Yemen.
Several Democrats in Congress said they would be introducing legislation to stop the ban and Ohio Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown attended the protest in Columbus, according to a report in The Columbus Dispatch.
Republican Rob Portman defended the action on CNN’s State of the Union Sunday.
“The notion that we don’t have an exit/entry program and good data on visa holders that are here is really surprising to my constituents, so there are things we can and should do” to improve immigration security, he said.
If the ban were announced with a one week notice, the "bad" would rush into our country during that week. A lot of bad "dudes" out there!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 30, 2017
President Donald Trump is defending his decision to take swift action on his proposed travel ban, saying there are “a lot of bad ‘dudes’ out there.”
The president tweeted Monday that “If the ban were announced with a one week notice, the ‘bad’ would rush into our country during that week.”
The president signed an executive order Friday to bar individuals from seven Muslim-majority countries for 90 days. The president has repeatedly said that the move is aimed at protecting the nation against extremists looking to attack Americans and American interests.