NEW YORK – Dozens of family members and relatives of 9/11 victims gathered on Thursday, February 16, at “The Sphere” in Battery Park, New York, to protest President Trump’s executive order banning people from seven Muslim-majority countries.

“We will not tolerate President Trump’s use of 9/11 to defend his deplorable anti-American political agenda,” the families said in a statement.

They said that it was an “outrage” that refugees who have been vetted and approved “now face grave danger and an uncertain future.”

In the executive order titled “Protecting the Nation from Foreign Terrorist Entry into the United States”, Trump cited 9/11 attacks three times in the first paragraph.

Sharing concern over Trump’s travel ban, the families came together to denounce the ban, saying that Trump is not entitled to speak in their names.

One of the protesters was Talat Hamdani, mother of Mohammad Salman Hamdani, a Pakistani-American NYPD cadet who died racing to help at the World Trade Center after the attacks.

Mohammad Hamdani’s remains were found by the north tower, his mother said, and he was memorialized as a hero by the city.

“I’m here fighting for my rights as an American citizen. This is a fight for the American soul, for the soul of America, and I’m here to defend the Constitution,” Talat Hamdani said.

“How can they say they’re going to protect me by taking away my rights? We have to speak up, we are speaking up and we will continue to speak up.”