Lawyers brave long days at JFK Airport helping immigrants panicking over Trump travel ban
Immigration attorney Camille Mackler thought it would take a few hours to help travelers stranded at Kennedy Airport by the Trump administration’s travel ban.
“They said, ‘Find somebody to take it over when you are ready to leave,’” Mackler recalled another volunteer telling her two days after the order was signed on Jan. 27.
That never happened.
Over the next nine days, Mackler worked 12-hour shifts overseeing an army of 1,000 volunteer lawyers. All told, they assisted 267 panicked families from a makeshift base in Terminal 4.