Newcastle protest against Trump’s executive order on immigration

People are expected to gather around the Monument in Newcastle city centre on Monday evening to protest against an executive order signed by the new American President, Donald Trump on rules regarding immigration and refugee admission.

The order, signed on Friday last week, imposes short-to-medium-term bans on citizens of seven countries in the Middle East and Africa from coming to America.

Citizens from Iraq, Syria, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, and Yemen are now subject to a 90-day ban on entering the United States.

The Trump administration say the order has been designed to allow time to undergo a review of security and border checks in order to protect America and American citizens from potential terror attacks. The administration has cited the chronic problems in the affected countries regarding jihadi terrorism.

The decision also orders an indefinite ban on Syrian refugees, and refugee numbers overall are capped at 50,000 for 2017. This is similar to numbers achieved by Obama in 2011 and 2012, but considerably lower than the 70,000 limit set between 2013 and 2016, when it was increased to 110,000.

The order also says that religious minorities should be favoured when determining refugee entries. This has been interpreted by some as discriminatory due to the predominately Muslim demographic of the countries affected. President Trump has argued that this action is justified due to the particular persecution faced by minorities such as Christians in these countries.

There have been protests in several airports all over America. In Britain, over a million people have now signed a petition arguing that Trump should not be given a full state visit, and suggesting that there should instead be a normal diplomatic meeting of the British and American government.

Some commentators have compared the temporary ban of immigrants from certain countries to similar actions made by President Obama, who in 2011 withdrew Iraqi citizens from the Visa Interview Waiver Programme in response to a terror attack in Kentucky. This forced all Iraqi citizens travelling to America to be interviewed on arrival, even if only for a short-term visit and when renewing existing visas.

President Carter also banned Iranian citizens from America during the hostage crisis in the 1970s. This ban was lifted when the situation was resolved.

Organisers say the protest will begin at 5:30pm at Monument on Monday 30^th January.