By Devin Otto
Intern, Big Picture High School

On Friday night (June 30), the “new” U.S. travel ban went into place, affecting airports across America, including Sea-Tac Airport. The ban, which bars non-visa holders from Iran, Syria, Somalia, Sudan, Yemen, and all refugees, had been introduced earlier this year, when it was was met with heavy criticism.

When first introduced earlier this year – in January – Sea-Tac Airport was filled with about a thousand protesters on the first night alone (read our previous coverage here). However, the turnout Friday night was not as intense, with just the occasional protester seen throughout the entire day.

This response seemed to have been mirrored across the country, as many major airports were also met with minimal protests.

There were police on location, due to an anticipated protester presence, but by 9 p.m. they had mostly dissipated.

There were lawyers located in the baggage claim area, ready to greet people coming off their planes who feared that their rights may be violated.

Sea-Tac expects business to continue as usual…

Founder/Publisher/Editor. Three-time National Emmy Award winning Writer (“Bill Nye the Science Guy”), Director, Producer, Journalist and more...

12 replies on “New Travel Ban doesn’t result in much protest at Sea-Tac Airport”

  1. Good. The ban should have been inplace for 20yrs! Since the 1st Trade Center bombing.

    1. This will protect us from nothing. Saudis brought down the towers, but they’re not banned. Trump needed permits and collaboration on high rises in Qatar so he could stuff his pockets with money, so they were never even considered.

      The terrorist assaults on our populations since 9/11 have all come from within – American citizens with axes to grind who pick up weaponry readily available and mow down people, sometimes in large numbers. Yet ICE continues to terrorize people who have a legitimate status and have done nothing that addresses our safety. Those who were given a status with the commitment of the government under the Dream act are being tossed out, and we have turned our backs on people in need of aid from horrible tortures of war.

      It’s just shameful what we are becoming.

      1. Your points are well made Nancy. Many people who post here just don’t like anyone who is different from themselves. To them, all Mexicans are the same, which is bad for a variety of reasons. All people coming to this country, are lazy people and/or terrorists and they are here only to take advantage of free hand-outs or kill people. Sad, but many of the people who post here just don’t like their fellow humans, if he/she is not white. It’s becoming a very common attitude across the country. With more and more incidents of violence to people of different nationality solely for the reason they are not US ‘born and bred’ white people. Probably only a matter of time before the whites start culling their own ‘lesser white’ brethren.

        1. And if millions of Americans started moving to Latin America and the Middle East taking jobs and enrolling all of their illegal kids in the school system that they pay property taxes for, the citizens of those regions wouldn’t have a problem with them?

          Yeah right.

          This isn’t a race thing. It’s a law & order thing.

          Stop pulling the race card for every issue!

    1. Why? Because I disagree? It’s been many decades since I was 17, not that it’s relevant to anything. This is my view, yours is different. I doubt we’ll agree on much and I’m ok with that.

      1. Ok Nancy your right you can have your own opinion or views. But I have to ask how is this 120 day ban effecting your day to day life. Also with all the news being so mixed up and one sided. How can you trust that your facts on this issue are correct. How do you know if what the news is saying and what trump is actually doing are the same.

        Unfortunately most people have been raised to trust the news organizations. But now of days when you don’t need to sit in front of your tv to get the news. News stations are trying to finds ways to keep you sitting in front of tv watching the news. Also finding more ways for advertisers to make more money. Then you have lobbyists and owners of these news stations. Picking what stories air and what won’t air.

        1. Good points all. Skepticism is important in this age where anyone can say anything to large audiences. I have criteria for validity of sources, and dismiss out of hand many common sources that are well known and have been demonstrated to lie with impunity.

          As for news sources, I rely on many, and not generally those commercial enterprises on tv. I look for sources that cite where their information came from, that introduce facts and not blanket statements without support, and I look for sources that will publish timely retractions when they have discovered they were wrong, because sometimes people get things wrong (shocker, I know).

          It’s true that owners of news sources influence what content will display and that can sway through omission a public point of view (these are sources that are generally truthful, not the ones that clearly state propaganda as fact). Because of this I realize that multiple sources are critical to understanding the news owing to bias for content and also to have confirmations of information from more than one source.

          When the initial ban was announced it was a chaotic mess with untrained people interpreting their roles and authority with little guidance. I know someone who had completed their two years of review by US security to achieve legal status and for whom the border was slammed shut. And that affected me. I’m tired of people believing that anyone could get in at any time without any kind of vetting. That was a lie that people were too willing to embrace. I’m tired of the notion that people from these countries by virtue of their nationality or religion are en Massey a threat. I’m tired of the attacks on Muslims and Seikhs and Mexicans and Iranians and Iraqis etc etc that have peppered our news cycles in the last several months. And I’m sickened by the refusal to acknowledge the very real threats we create within our own population based on politics of division and hate.

          It affects me because this is not who I am, nor is it who I want us to be.

          1. ok where to begin

            Well it sounds like you have a good selection of news sources with out naming any.

            You say you have had 1 friend that had 2 years vetting but now the border is slammed shut (120 more days) that is one month more than kids get for summer. Border not really slammed shut.

            The Mexicans or Latino’s in the news lately most have been people that are part of the dreamer program. That then choose to break the law which is in violation of the dreamer program (gang ties,dui). But again most media won’t state that. Then ice agents did some of these raids that were schedule while under the Obama administration. They just happen to do them after trump was elected. kinda like how Obama got called out by some for the Obama phone’s program to give low income people cell phones but really that program had nothing to with him. Just happen to accept cellphone as part of the program right after his inauguration . The program been in place for years.

            Yes the implementing of this has had some issues but there where also protesters at the airport. a all ready chaotic place to begin with.

            Part of this was how quick trump is doing things most people assume it’s going to takes years or a few months to get stuff done. But actually it can take a few days or maybe a month. Now yes if trump had more experience he would do a little better. He also doesn’t have lobbyists telling him what to do. Or what to drag his feet on. Then you have the media and yes even some non main stream media. Will try to make anything and everything trump does sound bad. Now I also am not for trump but I am also not completely against him.I think he should have stayed away from politics but he made the chose to run.

  2. Well with a low turnout here and a low turnout at the inpeachmen protest maybe people are starting to realize. The national media the 24 hour news stations and even the local news. Are all one sided only post stuff to get click’s and views. That just about 90% of the stuff any president says or does most likely does not effect your day to day life. There is important stuff to be worry about or be concerned about.

  3. I worry more about the over population and stress on our resources than somebody’s birth background. I wish all immigration would stop until our infra-structures can catch up.

Comments are closed.