--- title: Trump Immigration Plan: Activists Protest in New York City description: Hundreds of activists gathered in New York City on Wednesday to protest President Donald Trump's two executive orders on immigration canonical: https://time.com/4649751/trump-immigration-protest-new-york/ author: Charlotte Alter article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-01-26T04:23:27.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T02:57:11.482Z article:section: Politics og:title: Activists Gather in NYC to Protest Trump's Immigration Orders og:description: The first test of the Women's March coalition og:url: https://time.com/4649751/trump-immigration-protest-new-york/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2c8add116668a9c0/6988b74f97cdffab0a6af40f/gettyimages-632708246.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Rally For Muslim And Immigrant Rights Held In New York City og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Activists Gather in NYC to Protest Trump's Immigration Orders twitter:description: The first test of the Women's March coalition twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2c8add116668a9c0/6988b74f97cdffab0a6af40f/gettyimages-632708246.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Activists Gather in New York City to Protest President Trump's Immigration Orders ## Video: What to Know About President Trump's Immigration Orders [Watch (HLS stream): What to Know About President Trump's Immigration Orders](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/pGFFV8Yk.m3u8) (1:06)  _Published 2017-01-25. President Donald Trump green-lighted construction of a wall along the U.S. border with Mexico he repeatedly called for while campaigning via an executive action._  by [Charlotte Alter](/author/charlotte-alter/)  ## Charlotte Alter Senior Correspondent Jan 26, 2017 4:23 AM CUT  Hundreds of people attend an evening rally at Washington Square Park in support of Muslims, immigrants and against the building of a wall along the Mexican border on January 25, 2017 in New York City. (Spencer Platt--Getty Images) Hundreds of people attend an evening rally at Washington Square Park in support of Muslims, immigrants and against the building of a wall along the Mexican border on January 25, 2017 in New York City. (Spencer Platt--Getty Images)Spencer Platt—Getty Images  by [Charlotte Alter](/author/charlotte-alter/)  ## Charlotte Alter Senior Correspondent Jan 26, 2017 4:23 AM CUT Hundreds of activists gathered in New York City on Wednesday to protest President Donald Trump’s two executive orders on [immigration](http://time.com/4648516/donald-trump-immigration-executive-orders/?xid=homepage "undefined"). The demonstration, led by the New York Chapter of the Center for American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) was hastily organized in response to Trump’s executive orders restricting immigration from Muslim countries and efforts to curb undocumented immigration within the U.S. On Wednesday, Trump [green-lighted the construction](http://time.com/4648516/donald-trump-immigration-executive-orders/?xid=homepage "undefined") of a wall along the southern border, ordered the Department of Homeland Security to build more detention centers, and ended federal grant funding to so-called “sanctuary cities” that refuse to cooperate with federal anti-immigration efforts. The demonstration, in Washington Square Park, was both a rally in support of undocumented immigrants and Muslim refugees and a protest against Trump. It was also a test of whether the fragile coalition of activists who marched all over the country in the [Women’s March](http://time.com/4642488/womens-march-washington-dc-donald-trump-action/ "undefined") last weekend could maintain their unity in the long run. “I think the Women’s March was a giant wake-up call,” says Celine Robinson, a 27-year-old writer in New York City who attended Wednesday’s protest. “What am I doing standing up there if I’m not standing up here?” **Read More:** [_What to Know About President Trump’s Immigration Orders_](http://time.com/4648516/donald-trump-immigration-executive-orders/?xid=homepage "undefined") Many of the attendees at the Wednesday protest said they had also attended the Women’s March on Saturday. Massage therapist Jennifer Landry, 47, said coming to this demonstration is “the only thing that feels like we’re doing something.” Her 3-year-old daughter played patty-cake with other children to a new song they had learned: “Hey hey, ho ho, Donald Trump has got to go.” Edna Bonhomme, a socialist organizer and PhD student, said she was encouraged by the turnout at both the Women’s March and the Washington Square Park demonstration. “Now you have a broader layer of people who are protesting that might not have come out to previous protests,” she says. She is not a Muslim or an immigrant, but, she says, “We all stand with Muslims against hate.” Still, some of the black protesters in the crowd on Wednesday [questioned the motivations](http://motto.time.com/4648990/womens-march-privilege-white-women/ "undefined") of the demonstrators who were newer to social-justice activism. “There’s a lot of white folk here, and while that’s really dope, a lot of them look like they’re just passing by,” says Toni Wilson, a social-work student. “It looks like ‘Look at me, I support you,’ not ‘Look at me, I’ll get in the trenches with you.'” Wilson’s friend Ramelcy Uribe, a youth organizer, says she’s skeptical of white female protesters who didn’t take to the streets until Trump started mouthing off about sexual assault. “Folks did not feel pressured to show up for other folks until they were specifically threatened,” she says. “I don’t think cis white women feel like they need to show up to protest until the threat of sexual assault named them.” “I don’t know if it’s really solidarity or if it appears to be solidarity,” she added. **Read More:** [_Donald Trump’s Immigration Hard Line Would Affect Millions_](http://time.com/4574499/donald-trump-immigration-hard-line/?xid=homepage "undefined") For Robinson, the rally in defense of immigrants and Muslims is just the second of many, many protests she plans to attend throughout the Trump Administration. “I think I will show up to all the rallies and protests I hear about rather than be selective. We can’t afford to be selective,” she says. The Women’s March, she says, gave her marching orders. “I think it helped me to see that there are allies that I didn’t expect, but it reminded me that I need to be a better ally to Black Lives Matter and other causes,” she says. “A lot of white women were called on their white feminism, and I’m grateful for it.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4649751/trump-immigration-protest-new-york/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4649751/trump-immigration-protest-new-york/"},"headline":"Activists Gather in New York City to Protest President Trump's Immigration Orders","datePublished":"2017-01-26T04:23:27.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T02:57:11.482Z","description":"The first test of the Women's March coalition","url":"https://time.com/4649751/trump-immigration-protest-new-york/","keywords":["protest","New York City","Immigration","Muslim","activists","trump"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2c8add116668a9c0/6988b74f97cdffab0a6af40f/gettyimages-632708246.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Charlotte Alter","jobTitle":"Senior Correspondent","url":"https://time.com/author/charlotte-alter/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2c8add116668a9c0/6988b74f97cdffab0a6af40f/gettyimages-632708246.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Rally For Muslim And Immigrant Rights Held In New York City","caption":"Rally For Muslim And Immigrant Rights Held In New York City","creditText":"Spencer Platt—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/protest/","name":"protest"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4649751/trump-immigration-protest-new-york/","name":"Activists Gather in New York City to Protest President Trump's Immigration Orders"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"What to Know About President Trump's Immigration Orders","description":"President Donald Trump green-lighted construction of a wall along the U.S. border with Mexico he repeatedly called for while campaigning via an executive action.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/pGFFV8Yk/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2017-01-25T15:56:15.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/pGFFV8Yk.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/4649751/trump-immigration-protest-new-york/","duration":"PT1M6S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/4649751/trump-immigration-protest-new-york/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```