By GIOVANNA DELL’ORTO and MELISSA PEREZ WINDER
A number of companies from day cares to grocery shops and hair salons closed Monday throughout the U.S. in a loosely organized day of protest towards President Donald Trump’s immigration insurance policies.
However participation within the “day without immigrants” confronted headwinds from workers and enterprise house owners who stated they want the earnings — particularly as rumors of widespread raids, usually false, are leaving many migrant communities afraid to enterprise outdoors, affecting even some faculties. Monday’s occasion additionally got here on the heels of road protests Sunday in California and elsewhere.
Noel Xavier, organizing director for the North Atlantic States Regional Council of Carpenters, stated that whereas it’s vital to remind the nation of the worth migrant staff deliver to the communities they toil in, many staff couldn’t afford to take a time off.
“If I don’t go to work today, that’s one day less that I have, you know, to be able to pay for my next rent,” Xavier stated of the prevailing sentiment among the many staff he organizes. “I didn’t see this big rallying around being able to do that, or having the luxury to be able to do that.”
Jaime di Paulo, president of the Illinois Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, famous that small eating places and retailers in Chicago’s greatest Latino neighborhoods closed, however most main employers in addition to these in building and different industries have been working usually.
“This is only hurting our own community,” he stated.
Andrea Toro determined to shut her hair salon in Chicago’s Pilsen neighborhood. She added that lots of her purchasers are lecturers and have seen youngsters lacking college since Trump took workplace final month as a result of they concern it is probably not secure to go. In Chicago, as in San Diego, college districts stated some college students and households have been taking part in Monday’s protest.
“If we don’t have immigrants, we don’t have anything work around here,” stated Toro, who’s from Puerto Rico. “If we’re mute, we’re in silence, then they’re going to do whatever they want.”
El Burrito Mercado, which boomed from a small Latino market within the Nineteen Seventies to probably the most well known restaurant, catering and grocery companies in St. Paul, Minnesota, shut for the entire day in 2017 — when the newest main such occasion was held firstly of the primary Trump administration.
However on Monday, it stayed open for a number of hours with a skeleton crew, stated co-owner Milissa Silva.
Her mother and father emigrated from Mexico, and many of the 90 workers have Mexican roots. However many staffers expressed concern about shedding a piece day and about depriving individuals within the neighborhood of entry to groceries.
Equally, the Spanish-immersion day care supplier Tierra Encantada stored its 14 places open. However many mother and father determined to maintain their youngsters house Monday in solidarity with the principally first and second-generation immigrant workforce, stated CEO Kristen Denzer.
Households — most of them not immigrants — pulled some 450 youngsters from day care and preschool, about 70% of these enrolled in Minnesota alone, the place many of the group’s facilities are, Denzer stated. A number of staffers who had been on the fence determined to take the day after the present of help.
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In Utah, a number of Latino-owned shops, eating places and supermarkets closed their doorways.
“The movement today, it’s more about being compassionate,” stated state Sen. Luz Escamilla, a Democrat and Senate minority chief. “A lot of companies and communities are coming together in the state just to raise awareness of how much this has created a fear.”
Requested in regards to the day of protest at his Monday media availability, Utah Senate President Stuart Adams, a Republican, defended Trump’s immigration insurance policies and stated law-abiding immigrants ought to don’t have anything to fret about.
“The only people that are being talked about being deported (are) those that are criminals, those that are on probation, those bad people who have committed difficult crimes,” Adams stated.
Whereas immigration enforcement officers proceed to focus on for deportation migrants thought of public security and nationwide safety threats, an enormous change from the Biden administration is that officers can now arrest individuals with out authorized standing in the event that they run throughout them throughout operations.
Dell’Orto reported from Minneapolis and Perez Winder from Chicago. Contributing to this story have been AP reporters Cedar Attanasio in New York, Hannah Schoenbaum in Salt Lake Metropolis and Julie Watson in San Diego.
Initially Revealed: February 4, 2025 at 12:45 PM EST
