In Southern California and throughout the nation on Monday, dozens of companies nationwide closed, faculties reported decrease attendance and households postpone journeys to the grocery retailer in observance of “A day without immigrants.”
The decision to motion, which started circulating on social media final week, inspired immigrants to skip work, maintain their kids house from college and chorus from buying Monday.
Companies throughout the U.S. introduced closures on social media. A quinceañera boutique in Omaha. A espresso store in Salt Lake Metropolis. A used automobile lot in Baltimore. An accounting agency in Pasco, Wash.
Wendy Guardado, a Los Angeles activist who helped arrange the motion, mentioned she had counted almost 250 companies nationwide that had closed in solidarity with the motion. Different institutions discovered themselves in need of employees. On the Abbey Meals & Bar, a well-liked LGBTQ+ nightclub in West Hollywood, the kitchen was closed resulting from a staffing scarcity.
She mentioned that Monday’s motion was just the start, and that she heard many individuals couldn’t afford to take a time without work work with only a week’s discover.
“There is so much more coming,” Guardado mentioned, “because there’s four years of Trump.”
Guardado mentioned three lecturers within the Los Angeles Unified College District advised her that their lecture rooms had been empty Monday. Different district lecturers advised her that their lecture rooms had been almost empty.
Jonah Ocampo, 5, joins demonstrators protesting President Trump’s immigration insurance policies on Feb. 3, 2025, in Santa Ana.
(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Instances)
LAUSD didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark. A spokesperson for the Inglewood Unified College District mentioned that it skilled “a higher-than-usual student absence” throughout faculties. San Diego Unified College District Supt. Fabi Bagula famous that some college students and households had been taking part within the protest, however didn’t specify now many.
A trainer at Parmelee Avenue Elementary College in South L.A., who requested to not be named as a result of they weren’t licensed to talk out, mentioned that 390 of the college’s 670 college students had been absent Monday and that many mother and father had mentioned it was due to the protest.
At El Sol Academy in Santa Ana, as many as 50 college students will miss a day of college for private causes, mentioned Sara Flores, the college’s chief scholar and household help officer. On Monday, 180 didn’t present up.
In Sacramento, Mario Ledesma, 31, determined to shut his retailer, Pa’l Norte Work & Western Put on.
Ledesma mentioned his dad, who immigrated to the U.S. from Mexico many years in the past, used to promote western boots at an area flea market. Ledesma later offered boots too, switching to on-line gross sales throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. He was so profitable that he opened a brick-and-mortar 4 months in the past.
For Ledesma, closing his fledgling store for a day was extra necessary than any revenue he stood to make. The title of his retailer means To The North.
“I named my business in honor of the sacrifices our people made to come to this country in search of the American dream,” he wrote on Instagram. “We are living in a moment where our American dream is being attacked…Let’s show them that without us El Norte no existe” — the US wouldn’t exist.
Demonstrators block elements of Santa Ana Boulevard to protest President Trump’s immigration insurance policies on Feb. 3, 2025, in Santa Ana.
(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Instances)
In Santa Ana, Reyna, a restaurant line prepare dinner who didn’t wish to present her final title as a result of she’s within the nation with out authorized standing, determined to maintain her two kids house from college and deliberate to place off grocery searching for the day.
Reyna already had the time without work from work. However when a good friend texted her concerning the boycott over the weekend, she determined to hitch.
“We are part of this economy,” she mentioned. “Many of us immigrants who are here are not hurting anyone. We just wanted something better.”
Though the extent of the enterprise closures and absences wasn’t instantly clear, specialists mentioned the importance shouldn’t be measured in {dollars} and cents.
“The effectiveness of these kinds of mobilizations is more on the message,” mentioned Victor Narro, undertaking director on the UCLA Labor Middle. He mentioned Monday’s protest highlights the truth that with the inhabitants rising older and delivery charges falling, the nation must rely extra on the immigrant workforce for the economic system to stay robust.
A number of California eating places posted on social media that they had been closing in help of the motion: In Oakland, La Casa de Maria. In La Mirada, Barbacoa Los Gueros. All 10 places of the favored Teddy’s Crimson Taco, from Anaheim to Venice.
Antojitos Puebla, in downtown Los Angeles, additionally introduced it might shut for the day. On Fb, the restaurant wrote that “Immigrants are the backbone of our nation.”
1000’s march in downtown Los Angeles to protest President Trump’s immigration insurance policies.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Instances)
Additionally downtown, protesters resumed demonstrations Monday that introduced out hundreds and shut down the 101 Freeway a day earlier over President Trump’s latest govt actions on immigration. The motion was considerably smaller, and there was no signal of one other freeway takeover.
Exterior Los Angeles Metropolis Corridor, the whir of helicopters overhead was drowned out by a cacophony of bullhorns and fiery chanting. Katherine Sanchez, 18, couldn’t assist however smile.
“It’s very heartwarming,” Sanchez mentioned, standing along with her sister and oldsters Monday afternoon. She held an indication that learn, “Ur racism won’t end our strength.”
The Burbank Excessive College senior, who heard concerning the demonstration on TikTok, mentioned she and lots of of her associates skipped college to hitch the protest.
Sanchez’s father, Esteban Sanchez, the kid of Mexican immigrants, is disheartened by the messaging behind Trump’s latest actions on immigration.
“I was born here, and I feel like a foreigner,” he mentioned.
“It’s not the country that I thought we were,” he added, earlier than stepping off the curb and becoming a member of the protesters as they rushed Spring Avenue.
1000’s rally throughout the march in downtown Los Angeles.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Instances)
In downtown Santa Ana, a whole bunch of protesters equally gathered at Sasscer Park and throughout the road on the Ronald Reagan federal courthouse. Vehicles drove up and down the neighborhood’s slender streets whereas honking their horns to the cheers of pedestrians. Some vehicles, caught in visitors in between the park and the courthouse, started to spin their tires in place, filling the air with smoke.
Fernanda Hernandez, 19, led a few of her associates down 4th Avenue, Orange County’s historic Latino hall. She held an indication that mentioned, “My Parents Work Harder than Your President.” Each of her mother and father are undocumented immigrants from Mexico.
“Trump wants us to be afraid but we can’t be,” mentioned Hernandez, who referred to as in sick from her retail job. “We need to stand up for our gente. He wants us gone, whether we’re illegal or not.”
Instances employees writers Soudi Jimenez, Howard Blume, Daniel Miller and Jaweed Kaleem contributed to this report.
