Protests erupt at US airports as new travel ban takes effect

Rights groups staged demonstrations at airports across the United States on Monday as a controversial travel ban targeting several Muslim and African countries came into force.

At Los Angeles International Airport's Tom Bradley International Terminal, advocates gathered to condemn the policy, which President Donald Trump announced last week and which blocks entry from 12 countries.

The protest drew local media coverage and featured chants of solidarity with migrants and Muslim communities.

"Say it loud, say it clear, immigrants are welcome here!" shouted Aliya Yousufi, policy and advocacy manager with the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), during a demonstration at the LAX Tom Bradley International Terminal.

The protest drew coverage from local news outlets.

"The fact that we even have to explain that American Muslims, and Muslims worldwide, over two billion people, have nothing to do with terrorism, tells you how bad things are," said the executive director of CAIR-Los Angeles, as reported by ABC News. 

"It's almost like asking a white person to prove they’re not part of the KKK."

The travel ban, announced last week by President Donald Trump, bars entry to citizens of the following 12 countries: Afghanistan, Chad, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Myanmar, the Republic of the Congo, Somalia, Sudan, and Yemen. It also imposes partial restrictions on nationals of Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan, and Venezuela.

The directive is part of an immigration crackdown Trump launched this year at the start of his second term, which had also included the deportation to El Salvador of hundreds of Venezuelans suspected of being gang members, as well as efforts to deny enrollment of some foreign students and deport others over views seen as opposing US policy.

"We will not allow people to enter our country who wish to do us harm," Trump said in a video, arguing the ban was designed to protect the country from "foreign terrorists".

He said the list could be revised and new countries could be added.