Late Friday evening, Trump signed an executive order ending the Syrian Refugee program, suspending visas from seven majority-Muslim countries, and temporarily halting refugee resettlement. The following day, refugees from war-torn Syria, people with green cards, and travelers with valid visas started to get detained at airports around the country and even sent back to their point of origin. 

Ritch Yaure is a Communications Research Intern at AFSC.

Since taking office, President Donald Trump signed several executive orders—including a dramatic and chilling expansion of immigration enforcement. On Friday, he signed the "Muslim Ban," an order curtailing refugee programs and banning all immigrants and visa holders from seven Muslim-majority countries from entering the U.S. Here's what we're reading to learn more:

The wall is the least aggressive part of Trump’s executive actions on immigration, by Dara Lind via Vox

“There is no way out but to enter, there is no freedom without truth, there is no struggle without tenderness. The soil is poisoned, but sometimes blossoms open and the moment is a doorway into blue light.” – From a poem by Lucy

I went to the women’s march in Washington, D.C. this past weekend. It was exhilarating to be among the 500,000 people who came out for it. To be so many, so tightly packed, that we couldn’t properly march. It was powerful to flood the mall and the streets of D.C. to oppose the rise of fascism. There was an eerie exhilaration.

Palestinian journalist and author Mohammed Omer has been documenting the realities faced by people and communities in Gaza for over a decade. In November and December AFSC hosted a tour to several US cities where Mohammed spoke about conditions in Gaza and the impact of the ten-year blockade. He also visited sites of AFSC’s work to end US based oppression on the border in San Diego, in Ferguson, MO, and at US private prisons in Arizona and was able to make connections with the occupation and oppression in Palestine.

This story is part of the "Let Your Life Speak" 2017 feature. Read the other stories from the project here.

Activism in pushing for change while challenging U.S. policy will become even more urgent in the coming year. 

This is a year of anniversaries for Israel and Palestine. It marks 100 years since the signing of the Balfour Declaration, which signaled British agreement to the formation of a Jewish state in historic Palestine. It also marks the 70th anniversary of the 1947 U.N. Partition resolution and the start of the fighting in historic Palestine that culminated in the 1948 war. And June will mark 50 years of Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza.