Pittsburgh Mayor: 'We Follow the Constitution, Not Executive Orders'

It’s not easy getting to Pittsburgh’s airport: There are no direct rail lines to Pittsburgh International; a 17-mile cab or Uber ride from downtown can easily cost as much as $50. And yet about 200 people found their way there last weekend to join nationwide airport protests in response to Trump’s executive orders banning people from certain Muslim-majority nations from entering the country. And standing with them was Pittsburgh’s Mayor Bill Peduto, sharing the protestors’ message that “Yinz are welcome here.”

Pittsburgh, still recovering from decades of population loss and the dismantling of its once-mighty steel industry, has positioned itself as a city that welcomes newcomers in recent years. It has taken in thousands of refugees, including more than 200 last year alone. Many of those hail from now-banned nations, such as Iraq, Syria, and Somalia. Pittsburgh also hosts thousands of immigrants yearly at universities such as Pitt and Carnegie Mellon. These graduates are increasingly remaining in the city to work with companies like Uber and Google, which have played an instrumental role in the city’s innovation-and-tech makeover.