LOWER MANHATTAN — Hundreds of city students walked out of class Tuesday afternoon to protest President Donald Trump's travel ban.
Despite wet and dreary weather, scores of young people from high schools and colleges across the city gathered at Lower Manhattan's Foley Square — the site of several Trump protests in recent weeks — just after noon.
A series of speakers, most of them high schoolers, spoke out against Trump's hotly contested order that restricts travelers from seven predominantly Muslim countries. The ban has been temporarily blocked by a federal judge's ruling.
DNAinfo/Irene Plagianos
"Young people have always been at the forefront of change," said Yacine Fall, 17, a student speaker from Beacon High School.
"This ban is personal. I am Muslim, I am the daughter of Senegalese parents, but I am also a woman and black and I stand with all people, with disabled people, with trans and LGBQT people, with all people who have felt the brunt of Donald Trump's hateful words and policies."
While a number of students, including Fall, said their teachers told them not to walk out and attend the rally, several high schoolers, like Sara Serour, 16, and Habeeba Youssef, 16, students at The Young Women's Leadership school in Astoria, said their teachers gave them support to voice their discontent.
Sara Serour, 16, (left) and Habeeba Youssef, 16, said they both reject President Donald Trump's "unconstitutional" ban. (DNAinfo/ Irene Plagianos)
"We are a country made from immigrants," said Serour, the daughter of parents who came from Egypt.
"Nothing that Donald Trump says makes any sense and we can't stand for that, not in America."
Students also had the support of Public Advocate Tish James, who spoke to the crowd at 2 p.m., telling students to "rise up and resist."
History has shown us that nothing happens in this world without young people. Proud of NYC students for rising up & resisting #NoBanNoWall pic.twitter.com/57uzYbHY8H
— Tish James (@TishJames) February 7, 2017
Hundreds of chanting students then marched with fists in air around the block, stationing themselves in front of 26 Federal Plaza, where the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has its New York office.
Trump's immigration order is currently being fought in court. A San Francisco appeals court shot down the administration's request to immediately reverse a Seattle federal judge's stay on the ban, but the appeal is moving forward.
