President Trump’s childhood home became a shelter for refugees over the weekend after an advocacy group paid the rental costs associated with their stay.
The president’s childhood home was sold at auction in March and now serves as an Airbnb, a popular service that allows people to rent homes or apartments for short-term stays.
An anti-poverty group, Oxfam, paid the $725 per night bill for refugees to stay at Trump’s childhood home in Queens, N.Y., to make a statement about his administration’s immigration policies.
The president’s travel ban temporarily suspended the refugee resettlement program, and the administration is reportedly looking to cut the number of refugees admitted into the United States in half.
The Supreme Court last week allowed the restrictive policy on refugees to remain temporarily. Justices are set to hear arguments on the bans beginning Oct. 10.
“We wanted to send a strong message to Trump and world leaders that they must do more to welcome refugees,” Shannon Scribner, acting director for the humanitarian department of Oxfam America, told the Associated Press.
Refugees who stayed at Trump’s childhood home said their stay was enlightening and painful.
“To have someone so outspoken against my community become the president of the United States was very eye-opening and hurtful because I have invested a lot in this country,” said Eiman Ali, a 22-year-old refugee from Yemen, who stayed at the home.
Others who stayed said Trump should look to his childhood to find the “compassion and mercy” needed to deal with the issue.
“I would advise him to remember, to think about how he felt when he slept in this bedroom. If he can stay in tune with who he was as a child, the compassion children have and the mercy, I would say he’s a great person,” Ghassan al-Chahada, a 41-year-old Syrian refugee, told the AP.
He said he was fearful of leaving the country because he believes he would not be allowed to return.
Airbnb has offered the property for rental since August, marketing it with a copy of “Art of the Deal” along with a life-size cutout of Trump that “is a great companion for watching Fox News late into the night,” the listing says.
