Across the nation, business owners closed their doors in observance of the ‘Day Without Immigrants’ boycott. Listen as Larry speaks with Anas “Andy” Shallal, owner of Busboys and Poets, about his decision to close 6 area restaurants in protest of President Trump’s executive order on immigration.
During the interview Shallal mentioned immigrants are dealt with in a heavy handed way. O’Connor asked Shallal to explain further.
O’Connor: How have immigrants been dealt with in a heavy handed way?
Shallal: Well for instance, this latest directive, or executive order that we got from the President actually netted even people with green cards. People that were here, that had traveled across lots of hardships to get here legally. And they were detained at the airport.
O’Connor: Well of course you know within 48 hours that was corrected and the Homeland Security issued an order to ICE that in fact the green card holders were not supposed to be in that. So that’s already been corrected, you know that right?
Shallal: Of course I know that but the only problem with that is when you’re an immigrant coming from a fragile situation already, you saved your entire life to get on that plane to get across here, having you be kept in limbo for over 24 hours, where you don’t know really what’s going to happen. No one told you that in 24 hours this would go away. You’re sitting there, your loved ones are waiting for you, it becomes a devastating and very scary situation to be in. Sir, these are not just people who are going to check into a Four Seasons and wait around for the next directions to come around.
O’Connor: Mr. Shallal, have your ever toured Ellis Island? We often talk about how we are a nation of immigrants, my ancestors came through Ellis Island and let me tell you something, they were detained much longer than 48 hours and it was nothing like the Four Seasons, so an airport … listen I’m not saying it was a picnic but this is the reason why you shutdown your restaurants and protested today?
Shallal: What we’re saying is that we live in a democracy, there are better ways to do things. We need an immigration policy that doesn’t just deal with building higher walls, and hiring more security guards and more detention centers, we need a policy that really deals with the human elements of migration.
[…]
O’Connor: So when the Obama administration shut down refugees and immigration from the country of Iraq, your country, for quite some time during his presidency, did you shutdown your restaurant in protest?
Shallal: No, no, no.
O’Connor: So why now?
Shallal: Well the issues were not addressed the same way.
O’Connor: Wait, what are you talking about? He did the exact same thing to Iraq. They stopped refugees from Iraq and they stopped immigration from Iraq.
Shallal: They didn’t put Iraq on a list of countries that were not allowed to be in.
O’Connor: Actually, that’s exactly what they did. In fact, the 7 countries that President Trump has identified, he got those 7 countries from the Obama administration. You know that don’t you? You must know that.
Shallal: There were many Iraqis that came here during that period of time.
O’Connor: And there was also a freeze during the Obama administration.
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