Los Angeles – More than a million immigrants and their supporters skipped work, school and shopping Monday and marched on dozens of cities from coast to coast.
The demonstrations did not bring the nation to a halt as planned by some organizers, but they signaled the continuing resolve of those who favor loosening the country’s laws on illegal immigration.
Originally billed as a nationwide economic boycott under the banner “Day Without an Immigrant,” the day evolved into a sweeping round of protests intended to influence the debate in Congress over proposals that would grant legal status to all or most of the estimated 11 million illegal immigrants in the country.
Most of the protesters, a mix of illegal immigrants and legal residents and citizens, were Latino, but in contrast to similar demonstrations in the past two months, large numbers of people of other ethnicities joined or endorsed many of the events.
In some cases, the rallies took on a broader tone of social action, as gay-rights advocates, opponents of the war in Iraq and others without a direct stake in the immigration debate took to the streets.
“I think it’s only fair that I speak up for those who can’t speak for themselves,” said Aimee Hernandez, 28, one of an estimated 400,000 who turned out in Chicago, among the largest demonstrations. “I think we’re just too many that you can’t just send them back. How are you going to ignore these people?”
Opposition scoffs
But among those who favor stricter controls on illegal immigration, the protests hardly impressed.
“If anything it will free up traffic on the freeway and give kids a free day off of schools and others a free day off from work,” Jim Gilchrist, the founder of the Minutemen, a volunteer group that patrols the U.S.-Mexico border, said in an interview.
“But when the rule of law is dictated by a mob of illegal aliens taking to the streets, especially under a foreign flag, then that means the nation is not governed by a rule of law. It is a mobacracy,” Gilchrist said.
While the boycott, an idea born a couple of months ago among a small group of grassroots immigration advocates in Los Angeles, may not have shut down the country, it was strongly felt in a variety of places, particularly those with large Latino populations.
Stores and restaurants in Los Angeles, Chicago and New York closed because workers did not show up or as a display of solidarity with demonstrators.
School districts in several cities reported a decline in attendance – at Benito Juarez High School in Pilsen, a predominantly Latino community in Chicago, only 17 percent of the students showed up – even though administrators and some protest organizers urged students to stay in school.
Lettuce, tomatoes and grapes went unpicked in fields in California and Arizona, which contribute more than half of the nation’s produce, as scores of growers let workers take the day off.
Truckers that move 70 percent of the goods in ports in Los Angeles and Long Beach, the nation’s busiest, did not work.
The economic impact of all of this was difficult to gauge, though economists expected a one-day stoppage to have little long-term effect and in large swaths of the country life carried on with no noticeable difference.
But protesters in numerous cities, many white-clad and waving flags – most of them American in response to complaints that earlier rallies sported too many Latin American ones – declared victory as chanting throngs shut down streets.
House bill targeted
Most of the ire of the demonstrators was directed at a bill passed by the House that would beef up security at the border while making it a felony for an illegal immigrant to be in the country or to aid one.
The marchers generally favored a plan in the Senate, which has signs of support from President Bush, that would include more protection at the border but offer many illegal workers a path to citizenship.
Still, the divide among advocates over the value and effectiveness of a boycott resulted in some cities, including Los Angeles and San Diego, playing host to two sizable demonstrations, one organized by boycotters and the other by people neutral or opposed to it.
That split played out across the country. While many business owners warned employees about taking the day off, many others also sought to negotiate time off or other ways to register workers’ sentiments.
Las Vegas casino hotels reported few disruptions, in part because owners of the big hotels and casinos announced last week their support of immigrant workers. Monday, more than 40 casinos set up tables in employee lunchrooms for workers to sign pro-immigration petitions.
Small businesses hurt
Leaders of Culinary Union 226, the city’s largest hospitality union, representing 50,000 workers of which 40 percent are Latino, also urged members to go to work.
Smaller businesses took a hit. Javier Barajas said he closed his family’s four Mexican restaurants in Las Vegas because his staff warned him they would not show up, costing him more than $60,000 in revenue.
“I cannot fire anybody over this, but I would have liked to see some other way to express themselves,” said Barajas. Once an illegal immigrant from central Mexico, he eventually became a U.S. citizen. “It’s the small businesses that are hurt by this.”
In Chicago, there was solidarity in diversity. Latinos were joined by immigrants of Polish, Irish, Asian and African descent, as well as Muslims, as they flowed from Chicago’s Loop, wound past the Board of Trade, and spilled into Grant Park, on the edge of Lake Michigan.