More than 1,500 rally for immigrants in Iowa City

IOWA CITY — More than 1,500 people packed the Iowa City Pedestrian Mall on Sunday afternoon to stand with and for immigrants targeted by a Trump administration travel ban.

Immigrants and their supporters took the stage to talk about their experiences, play music and encourage the crowd to continue to voice opposition to policies and practices they feel harm the United States.

'It is true we feel stress from Islamic extremism,' said Eltoum Hassan of Iowa City. 'But banning Muslims from seven nations is not going to save us. It's going to make us more insecure.'

President Donald Trump on Jan. 27 signed an order barring citizens of seven predominantly Muslim countries — Iraq, Syria, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen — from entering the U.S. for 90 days.

Trump said the order, which also prohibits refugees from entering for 120 days, and Syrian refugees from entering indefinitely, would give the U.S. government time to install stricter screening of immigrants.

A federal judge temporarily halted the order Friday, but the move has been appealed by the Justice Department.

Concern about the travel ban has mobilized Americans across the country. In Iowa City, the issue brought out dogs in T-shirts, children on shoulders, seniors in rainbow-colored ponchos, drum players, University of Iowa students, soccer moms with expensive strollers and a couple of farmers from rural Johnson County.

'We wanted to come out and support a little bit of tolerance,' said Leanne Hemingway, who brought her dad, Steve Hemingway, to the rally.

The elder Hemingway remembers taking part in anti-Vietnam war protests in Iowa City in 1970.

'I'm a lot tamer now,' he said.

Signs at the rally included 'Ban the ban,' 'We will resist,' 'Be nice to all people,' and 'You tweet, we march.' But the immigration ban wasn't the only issue on the minds of those at the rally. One sign said 'No DeVos. No Tillerson,' references to two of Trump's Cabinet picks, and 'Trump will destroy the earth.'

A dozen or so people with signs supporting Trump did not cause waves at Sunday's rally.

Besides the immigration ban, speakers hit on topics that included Native Americans battling the Dakota Access pipeline in North Dakota and bills at the Iowa Statehouse viewed as anti-union.

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'It was an extremist who shot Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.' when he was supporting striking sanitation workers, Greg Hearns, president of the Iowa City Federation of Labor, told the crowd. 'It continues to be extremists killing black and brown people in the name of law enforcement. Now we have an extremist in the White House. The fight is just starting.'

Hearn wasn't the only speaker to acknowledge the challenge of extending the passion of Sunday's event into a multiyear resistance.

'I know you're going to get weary in coming days, weeks and years,' said Johnson County Supervisor Janelle Rettig, who stood with fellow board members. 'But I do know we're stronger together.'

Dawn Pawlowski, 33, of Iowa City, said she's prepared to go the long haul.

'If we can all do a little bit at a time and take breaks when we need to, we can keep it going.'

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