‘Fight ignorance not immigrants’ reads a sign at the MSU protest against President Trump's immigration orders. It may be just one sign, but it speaks for many.
"For me it hurts personally,” Abraham Aiyash, President of the Muslim Students Assocation said. “My parents are immigrants of Yemen."
"I am the child of two Muslim immigrants both from Lebanon," Marwa Mallah, an MSU student said.
"I am of Armenian and Indian descent,” Aaron Stephens, an MSU student said. “I'm the son of immigrants. Without refugee programs, I would not be here right now."
To these children of immigrants and the hundreds of others at the protest the ban hits too close to home.
They want to share the message of who the refugees are and that they aren't dangerous.
"The folks who are being detained are being painted as possible terrorists when they're also possible doctors, possible lawyers, possible mom and dads," Pastor Sarah Midzalkowski with the University Lutheran Church said.
People trying to make a safe life for their families. Those who help them settle also turned out.
Among them, lawyers and religious leaders sharing stories, hoping to educate.
"Because quite frankly this isn't an issue of national security it just seems like blank discrimination," Aiyash said.
Discrimination pulling us apart. These protesters want to bring us closer together.
"We're all valued,” Pastor Midzalkowski said. “And these times are times when we need to come together to remind ourselves of that."
The group hopes this demonstration brings more people together to help each other move forward.
