David Simon leads rally against President Trump’s Muslim Ban

Author and the man behind HBO’s The Wire David Simon hosted a rally Monday at the Beth Am Synagogue in Baltimore to protest against President Donald Trump’s travel ban

One of Trump’s first executive orders barred entry into the U.S. from seven Muslim-majority countries. It was successfully challenged in federal court. Now, the Trump administration, at press time, is requesting the full appellant court of the 9th Judicial Circuit to hear the case.

Another one of the Executive Orders from Trump would de-fund “sanctuary cities.” (Baltimore, however, under Mayor Catherine Pugh, has declined to take on that role.)

Simon’s production company will “donate up to $100,000 in matching funds” to further this cause. Simon has repeatedly made known his strong opposition to Trump’s executive orders.

Meanwhile, U.S. Immigration and Customs enforcement agents (ICE) have arrested hundreds in a nationwide sweep, since Trump’s orders were made public. The agency said its conduct is only “routine” and focused on “undocumented immigrants who have criminal records or pending deportation orders.”

Critics sharply disagree with ICE’s conduct.

Stephen Miller, a key Trump advisor addressed this ongoing dispute. He said that it all comes down to an “ideological disagreement between those who believe we (the United State) should have borders and those who believe there should be no borders and no controls.”

Speaking at the rally, before a near capacity audience of about 650, besides Simon were 12 other notables. Three of them are very well known to the local community. They include Beau Willimon, the creator of the Netflix series, House of Cards, Internet-activist, DeRay Mckesson, who also ran for mayor on the Democratic ticket in 2016 and finished in sixth place, and author Taylor Branch. He won a Pulitzer Prize for his King Era Trilogy.

Rabbi Daniel Cotzin Burg of Beth Am Synagogue gave the welcoming remarks. Musical entertainment was provided by American rock, country & folk singer/songwriter, Steve Earle.

In his remarks, Simon praised the community for quickly raising close to $50,000, most of it online. He said he got “mad” when he was watching the recent scenes of distress at our nation’s airports as a result of Trump’s executive orders. He brought up the fact that “ten of his relatives” could not escape from Europe during that horrific Nazi era.

The idea of “America First” was derided by Simon. He said that today, unlike in the past, that he’s confident that we as a people “can do more.”