2,000 at San Diego Airport Decry Trump Travel Ban

For Chicago native Evelyn Hogan, the president’s travel limits on select Muslim nationals was personal — and widely felt in her family.

Arriving passengers at Lindbergh Field walk a distance from protesters to get to their cars. Photo by Chris Stone

“This ban changes the identity of this country,” the local transplant said Sunday night — one of 2,000 people showing signs and chanting slogans at San Diego International Airport against President Trump’s executive order.

Immigration is important to her, she said at Lindbergh Field, named for the aviator and “America First” advocate of the 1930s. And she wasn’t alone.

“I have 32 different [family] members in 32 different states and in four countries that are protesting currently,” Hogan said at one of the more peaceful demonstrations — with no confrontations or counterprotests. No arrests were reported.

“My ex-husband was from Jordan and a Muslim himself, so this hits very close to home.”

Sheridan Sweeney, 5, joins her mother at Lindbergh Field in protest against President Donald Trump's executive order on immigration. Photo by Chris Stone — Sheridan Sweeney, 5, joins her mother at Lindbergh Field in protest against President Donald Trump’s executive order on immigration. Photo by Chris Stone

Shannon Sweeney of San Diego said she and her 5-year-old daughter were “tremendously upset” about plans for a border wall and executive order on immigration.

“We strenuously oppose them and we believe that America is inclusive,” she said. “That’s what our country was founded upon.”

Sweeney, taking part in her second protest in a week, said San Diego is “waking up like the rest of the country. It’s time, and it’s important, and I don’t think it is going to be stopping.”

Word of the protest spread on Facebook, with people arriving at 4 p.m. By the announced start of 5 p.m., several hundred protesters were already present. The crowd swelled to 2,000 by 7 p.m., Harbor Police said, and the outdoor demonstration continued past 9 p.m.

Carol Anderson of San Diego said Trump’s “sweeping gesture” was shocking. He “makes bans on countries where he has no property and no business interests — all based on the fears of his constituents, which were a minority.”

“So I’m here to support everyone who wants to come and has their visa and wants to escape oppression. It’s frightening what he is doing. That’s why I am here.”

Hogan scoffed at White House arguments that the travel ban didn’t target a faith.

The protesters were diverse with people of all ages and nationalities. Photo by Chris Stone

“We all know that it’s about religion,” she said. “I feel that in order to retain our country’s identity as a home for immigrants and for people who are trying to make a better life for themselves, we have to stand up to his tyranny.”

In Los Angeles, protesters blocked LAX crosswalks at times at the Tom Bradley International Terminal even though their numbers shrunk from thousands to about 100, authorities said.

Three youths carrying a large banner showing the flags of countries from where people have been banned from coming and going received cheers as they marched down the empty roadway. Some protesters sang “Amazing Grace,” as the remarkable scene was monitored by a small crew of Los Angeles police officers.

Not taking the event so gracefully in San Diego was a middle-aged woman on the elevated pedestrian walkway between Terminal 2 and the parking lot.

A TSA officer was watching the loud demonstration, and the woman stopped to ask him: “Isn’t there something you can do to stop this? My grandbaby is crying.”

No, there wasn’t, he said.

— City News Service contributed to this report.