Governor Andrew Cuomo said his office will provide legal counsel for immigrants detained in New York airports and announced a hotline for families unsure if loved ones are detained.
Officials believe six people were detained as of Sunday afternoon, after an executive order Saturday from President Donald Trump barred all refugees from entering the United States for four months.
Additionally, the order halted refugees from Syria, in an effort to keep out "radical Islamic terrorists," according to an AP report.
In a live press conference Sunday, Cuomo said attorneys from his office and the Port Authority are available for counsel, to ensure the legal rights of detainees are protected.
He said the ban on immigrants goes against "the essence of who we are," as New Yorkers.
"As a New Yorker, I am an immigrant.....As a New Yorker, I am a Muslim. As a New Yorker, I am Jewish. As a New Yorker, I am black. I am gay....As New Yorkers, we are one community. The New York community is composed of all of the above," Cuomo said, responding to President Trump's executive order.
Officials said they hope all of the detainees will be released by the end of Sunday.
The following hotline was established for families who haven't heard from family members expected to arrive at an airport Saturday: 1-888-769-7243
State officials announced proposed legislation Sunday in response to an alleged hate crime at Kennedy airport last week when a female airline employee was attacked.
Rabeeya Khan was sitting in her office in the lounge at Kennedy Airport on Jan. 25 when she was attacked by a passenger who mocked her religion and invoked the name of Donald Trump, officials said, according to a report from the New York Daily News.
"F--k Islam, f--k ISIS," Robin Rhodes said, as he got on his knees and bowed in mock prayer after kicking a worker at Terminal 2's Delta Sky Lounge Wednesday night, according to authorities.
Cuomo said he is working with the Assembly and Senate to adopt what they hope to be the Transportation Worker Protection Act, which would make an attack on an airline worker a federal offense-- subject to a maximum of seven years in prison.
"We have zero tolerance for any attack against an employee who works in the New York City transit system," said Alphonso David, counsel to the governor.
The press conference was held amid protests at JFK Airport, Battery Park and in cities nationwide.
Trump's order immediately suspended a program that last year resettled in the U.S. roughly 85,000 people displaced by war, political oppression, hunger and religious prejudice. Trump indefinitely blocked those fleeing Syria, where a civil war has raged, and imposed a 90-day ban on all immigration to the U.S. from seven Muslim majority nations, citing terrorism concerns.
Trump said the halt in the refugee program was necessary to give agencies time to develop a stricter screening system, according to an AP report.
The U.S. may admit refugees on a case-by-case basis during the freeze, and the government will continue to process requests from people claiming religious persecution, "provided that the religion of the individual is a minority religion in the individual's country."
Christians in the Middle-East have been executed in large numbers. We cannot allow this horror to continue!
-- Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 29, 2017
The Council on American-Islamic Relations said it would challenge the constitutionality of the executive order.
(c)2017 Staten Island Advance, N.Y.