This weekend has been one of the strangest weekends I've experienced. I didn't feel frozen, but instead, incapable of being useful or powerful.

The new Administration enacted another Executive Order (EO) on Friday, but this time it had very immediate and very real ramifications. It was anticipated that a new immigration policy would be proposed, and after watching a video about EOs, I sort of relaxed - nothing could be set in stone. I had people to hang out with all day and there wasn't much I felt I had to follow, so I stopped checking.

Saturday came and so did the 'Muslim Ban' - an indefinite ban on Syrian resettlement, a 120 day entry suspension for refugees, and a 90 day ban for refugees from seven majority-Muslim countries, with said priority for Christians. I didn't have to think twice about the moral or ethical preferences and comprises being made - all I knew was that it was wrong and that recent and past history had made many similar decisions one too many times. I stayed on my computer and phone with each alert of a protest or detainee.

I looked for the voices, those who were feeling it firsthand because their voices needed to be amplified. Refugees, students, those in the entertainment industry and technology industry, an Olympian, and children of immigrant parents and more immediately called out the consequences and confusion surrounding this radical move.

As one of the millions of immigrant children, I felt my insides melt. Knowing the hardships our parents endured for citizenship was now being dismissed or withheld for certain citizens, migrants, and refugees was heartbreaking. Do you know how powerful an American green card or visa is? It's both the 'best' and the hardest item to obtain, and definitely the most sacred word in a sentence. To have suffered injustices in your home country only to find out your opportunity to seek refuge has been suddenly denied adds insult to injury, or for some - death.

I stayed up into the early morning checking the American Civil Liberties Union's (ACLU) twitter and article updates from the Washington Post, New York Times, and NPR. I cheered quietly in bed while watching videos of celebration for the temporary stay. I was thankful for judges, mayors, senators, lawyers working pro bono, and civilians who were out protesting, connecting people with services and answers, or making the decision to defy one of the many first steps into dangerous and deadly territory.

Living in North Dakota and near the Twin Cities, recent Somalian refugee families and refugees from the almost 50 countries who have resettled in our area are on my mind. Also on my mind is my University looking out for its international student community. I think about friends, classmates, and faculty and staff who have attachments to and in these seven countries and what it means for them to be here right now. But I want to do more than think of them.

I'm still feeling weak and useless. But I know that I can keep supporting those who uphold the better and best parts of our legal system and shared moral values. I can keep looking for and listening to those who are sharing their stories - celebrity or tech firm manager or niece of a man overseas. I can learn about legal processes and our rights and share the information in hopes of building another layer of control and security for individuals who feel threatened. While I want to strive for more discourse, I recognize action has already happened, and now action is required back.

I don't know what to do, but I'm latching onto who ever does or asks for help.

You can support the ACLU, International Refugee Assistance Program, and National Immigration Law Center as they continue the hard work ahead. You can see and hear refugee and immigrant voices and services through social media, engaging with those around you, and through the International Rescue Committee and U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants. Also learn more about Muslim Americans and ways you can support them amid this harrowing legal and social climate: Council on American-Islamic Relations, Teaching Tolerance, and My Fellow American.

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Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!

Emma Lazarus, Statue of Liberty