ACLU gets $24M in donations after suing over Trump order
The American Civil Liberties Union received more than $24 million in online donations over the weekend after the ACLU sued over President Trump’s executive order on immigration.
The donations are roughly six times what the ACLU normally receives in one year in online donations, CNN reported.
About 356,306 people contributed $24,164,691 to the organization this weekend, CNN reported.
Donations came in steadily amid widespread outrage over Trump’s order, which blocks refugees and people from seven predominantly Muslim countries from entering the United States. On Sunday evening, the organization announced it had about $19.4 million in donations.
A spokesman said the group ran “one last set of numbers” at the end of the night on Sunday that brought the total to more than $24.1 million, CNN reported.
Officials have called the swift rise in donations “unprecedented.” An ACLU official, in an interview in CNN, had just one word to describe the rise in donations: “Wow.”
The organization is also reporting a rise in membership since the start of the Trump administration.
Yahoo News reported ACLU membership rose from 400,000 to more than 1 million since the election.
{mosads}The ACLU filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration Saturday in the name of two men who were detained at New York’s John F. Kennedy Intentional Airport as a result of the travel ban.
A federal judge then issued an emergency stay on deportations of detainees under the executive order. The move is the first successful legal action taken against the Trump administration.
Tens of thousands of people gathered at airports and cities around the country over the weekend to protest the order. The executive order has received bipartisan and international criticism.
The Trump administration has defended the order. Trump, in a statement Sunday, said the media is falsely portraying the travel ban as a ban on Muslims entering the country, which Trump called for in December 2015 while campaigning for president.
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