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It's been six months since Zainab Omar last saw her two sons.

She doesn't like talking about them, and pulls a purple beaded hijab tighter around her face to cover flushed cheeks.

"I'm always thinking about them," Omar whispered to a translator.

The boys, ages 11 and 12, have been living with their grandmother in Somalia while Omar came to Utah and prepared for their arrival. They were supposed to come to the state in the next two months. Now she's not sure when that will happen.

As a protest and an appeal for answers, Omar joined several thousand others in a march on Utah's Capitol on Saturday afternoon. The mass of demonstrators derided President Donald Trump's recent executive orders limiting immigration from seven Muslim-majority countries and temporarily banning refugees.

Though Trump's penned actions — in line with his campaign promise of a "Muslim ban" — have been called into question with a nationwide stay issued by a judge Friday night, many at the rally said the court order did little to assuage their fears.

"I am afraid for my life," Omar said.

Utah's rally filled three levels of the Capitol — where people crowded tightly under murals of the state's Mormon pioneers who faced similar persecution — with signs of encouragement and belonging as demonstrators chanted, "Immigrants are welcome here."

They piled their posters, "No one is illegal" and "Refugees make America great," at the feet of an 11-foot bronze sculpture of a woman and child representing immigration and settlement inside the rotunda. Gachi Guet, with her 4-year-old son, Ayman, on her shoulders, stood next to the niche artwork.

Guet fled Chad in 1998 after her father, a political leader in the African country, was assassinated during a civil war. She found refuge in Utah with her mother and siblings after an 18-month vetting and screening process.

"Refugees are not terrorists," she said. "They're the victims of terrorism."

Guet, a Muslim, says Trump is an "ignorant politician" who made a snap decision with his executive order that affects thousands of lives.

Nationwide, between 60,000 and 100,000 visas have been canceled. The low range was cited by the State Department, while the higher estimate was used by a Justice Department attorney in a courtroom. At least 64 refugees slated to arrive in Utah this month had their flights canceled when the federal government stopped their immigration applications under the order.

It's unclear how those cases will be resolved under the Friday stay issued by U.S. District Judge James Robart in Seattle.

Saturday's marchers flooded State Street, stretching wide over the road and shutting down traffic, in their march to the Capitol. The group was so large that the front was chanting something different from the tail.

Hawa Suber, 19, walked at the back of the crowd wearing a bright red scarf wound around her head. She came to the United States when she was 3 years old, fleeing Kenya with her parents and siblings.

"Not every Muslim is the same," she cautioned Trump.

Speakers rallied around that idea, saying the executive order has tried to divide the country but has only resulted in greater unity for activists.

"It takes courage to be a refugee," Ben Gjaba, with the Utah Refugee Civic Community, told the crowd, which erupted in cheers. "It takes courage to embrace a new culture. It takes courage to leave your home."

At the end of the rally, the cardboard sign that Omar had clung to at the beginning lay on the marble floor of the Capitol. Another woman picked it up and carried it proudly out the door.

"I was tired. I was poor. I huddled among the masses and yearned to breathe free," the poster read, referencing the Statue of Liberty's plaque. "I am a refugee and LOVE this country. Just as much as you."

Twitter: @CourtneyLTanner