The New York Taxi Workers Alliance, a nonprofit organization that works with the metropolis’ more than 50,000 licensed yellow taxi drivers, called for a one-hour work stoppage at John F. Kennedy International Airport in protest of President Donald Trump’s executive order banning all refugees for 120 days and suspending re-entry for valid visa and green card holders from seven Muslim-majority countries.
The NYTWA issued a statement saying that their drivers had joined the growing protest around JFK Airport’s Terminal Four, where many international arrivals first alight on American soil. They’ve refused to carry passengers from the site of the demonstrations.
There are reports of thousands protesting at airports in Chicago, San Francisco, Virginia and Texas, as well as in New York, where at least 11 refugees were detained earlier today.
The NYTWA describes itself as a membership-based not-for-profit organization that advocates for the rights of New York City’s more than 50,000 licensed yellow taxi drivers.
The bans, enacted by executive order by US President Donald Trump January 27, indefinitely suspends the US program to accept Syrian refugees and temporarily bans entry to the US of nationals from predominantly Muslim Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen, even if they hold valid visas or green cards, in some cases. Christians and other members of minority religions from those countries are to take priority in immigration processes, the new regulations state.
