“No hate! No Fear! Refugees are welcome here,” chanted a group of protesters on the steps of Huntington City Hall Wednesday.

The protests were in reaction to President Donald Trump’s immigration ban, an order that temporarily blocks refugees and immigrants from seven Muslim-majority countries. The executive order has sparked controversy across the nation, with similar protests in other major cities and airports.

Rebecca Finley, a Huntington native, decided that Huntington should join those cities in solidarity. On Jan. 29, Finley created a Facebook event page calling for a protest of the ban. The page titled, “No ban! No Wall! Solidarity for Immigrants,” sparked interest in more than 750 people, according to Facebook. The page called for the protest on Wednesday at Huntington’s city hall.

“For them to feel like there are people standing with them and their rights is something that I’m passionate about,” Finley said. “As someone that was born and raised and here, and someone that converted here in this city as a Muslim, I completely understand what kind of backlash they can get from this community, but also I want to show them the positivity of the people here as well.”

this is excerpted from an article in The Parthenon, student newspaper at Marshall University