‘Day Without Immigrants’ begins across U.S.

Widespread actions, protest expected, but some will sit it out

 

MSNBC News Services

Updated: 11:20 a.m. ET May 1, 2006

 

HOMESTEAD, Fla. - Illegal immigrants and their allies gathered Monday for marches, prayers and demonstrations on a planned national day of economic protest, boycotting work, school and shopping to show their importance to the country.

 

In one of the early demonstrations, about 1,200 people marched in the rural city of Homestead, home to one Florida’s largest Mexican immigrant populations and many major growers of fruits, vegetables and nursery plants.

 

Jose Cruz, 23, from El Salvador, said he took off the day from his construction job to attend the rally.

 

“If I lose my job, it’s worth it,” said Cruz, who has a temporary work permit that is granted to many Central Americans. “It’s worth losing several jobs to get my papers.”

 

Others were working Monday but buying nothing as part of the economic boycott around the country. Some planned to attend protests during lunch breaks or after work. Church services, candlelight vigils, picnics and human chains also were planned.

 

In each of New York City’s five boroughs, thousands of workers were expected to take work breaks shortly after noon to link arms with shoppers, restaurant-goers and other supporters for about 20 minutes.

 

“This will symbolize the interdependence of all of us, not just immigrants, but all of society,” said Chung-Wa Hong, executive director of the New York Immigration Coalition.

 

Monday’s action and earlier marches are in response to a get-tough bill passed by the Republican-led House of Representatives that would reclassify illegal immigrants as felons, punish those who help them and build a fence along much of the U.S.-Mexican border.

 

A bipartisan bill stalled in the U.S. Senate would bolster border security, but also provide illegal immigrants a path toward citizenship and a guest-worker program long favored by President Bush.

 

 

Tyson closes plants

Some big businesses were shutting down operations: Six of 14 Perdue Farms plants will close; Gallo Wines in Sonoma, Calif., was giving its 150 employees the day off; Tyson Foods Inc., the world’s largest meat producer, planned to shut five of its nine beef plants and four of six pork plants.

 

In Denver, El Centro Humanitario, a nonprofit set up to help day laborers, was closed Monday because its managers were helping organize a rally downtown expected to attract tens of thousands of people.

 

But there was little change at Labor Finders, a temporary office with several offices in the Denver area, spokesman Tim Kaffer said.

 

“The people who come in here really can’t afford to take a day off,” he said. “Their daily pay just takes care of their hotel and food.”

 

Thanks to the success of previous rallies plus media attention, planning for Monday’s events, collectively called Un Dia Sin Inmigrantes — A Day Without Immigrants — is widespread, though fragmented.

 

On the eve of the protest, about 3,000 people rallied for immigrant rights at a park in Lynwood, a heavily Hispanic Los Angeles suburb. Organizers of the demonstration called on residents and businesses to support the boycott.

 

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa urged students to stay in school and advised protesters against waving flags of their native countries.

 

“You should wave the American flag,” he said. “It’s the flag of the country that we all are proud of and want to be a part of. Don’t disrespect the traditions of this country.”

 

 

Multiethnic event in Chicago

A rally in Chicago representing the city’s Arab, Asian, black, eastern European and Hispanic communities, along with labor groups and religious leaders, could bring out as many as half a million people, organizers say. They urged immigrant workers to ask for time off and encouraged students to get permission to attend the demonstration.

 

“Stand in solidarity with people of all races and nationalities because immigration legislation does not just affect one group; it affects everyone!” Sadiya Ahmed, with the Council on American-Islamic Relations, wrote in a recent e-mail.

 

Activists in Florida said many immigrants were concerned about recent federal raids, in which hundreds of immigrants with criminal backgrounds were rounded up in Florida and throughout the Midwest.

 

“We’re not officially coordinating a work stoppage. We are leaving it up to every individual. We don’t want people to lose a job, but we want to encourage people to stand up for their rights,” said Maria Rodriguez, head of the Florida Immigrant Coalition.

 

In California, a spokeswoman for Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said a boycott would “hurt everyone,” while Democratic state senators passed a resolution supporting walkouts.

 

Vying strategies

Opponents of illegal immigration spent the weekend building a fence to symbolize their support of a secure border. About 200 volunteers organized by the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps of California worked on a 6-foot barbed-wire fence along a quarter-mile stretch of rugged terrain near the U.S.-Mexico border about 50 miles east of San Diego.

 

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops urged immigrants to attend Mass instead of boycotting, and suggested that churches toll their bells in memory of immigrants who died trying to come to the U.S. They also urged students to stay in school.

 

Denver-area contractor Chuck Saxton, who hires temporary workers, is sympathetic to the movement. “I’m going to go to support them. These guys come here, they work hard and they’re honest,” he said. “They provide a vibrancy to our economy and our country that is fading.”

 

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

 

© 2006 MSNBC.com

 

URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12573992/?GT1=8199

 

 

"Viva La Raza!!!" :sombrero::thumbsup:

I hope they hurry up and build a wall on the border.

And absolutely nothing has happened yet...

You're Illegal. It's A Crime. Get Out, Or Go To Jail.

And absolutely nothing has happened yet...

 

not what our evening news was showing. there were a hell of a lot of people out marching on the streets of the US today

not what our evening news was showing. there were a hell of a lot of people out marching on the streets of the US today

 

these protest are going to have a negative affect on what they are trying to do. its only going to make americans want to deport illegals and have tighter security on the border. so i say let them have more protest like this.

these protest are going to have a negative affect on what they are trying to do. its only going to make americans want to deport illegals and have tighter security on the border. so i say let them have more protest like this.

 

 

speak for yourself you!!

 

there are thousands of "AMERICANS" marching today as well.. not just the illegals.. you narrow minded fool!!

speak for yourself you!!

 

there are thousands of "AMERICANS" marching today as well.. not just the illegals.. you narrow minded fool!!

 

when did i EVER say it was illegals marching you ignorant fool??

 

You see even though there are some legal american citizens marching it will not change the fact most american are against illegal immagration and the few that are marching pro illegal immagration make up a VERY small majority of america...please open your mind.

Most Americans my ass..

 

 

 

says who?????? Who says that most Americans are opposed to this??? (or in favor of the bill) please show me these statistcs.... because let me just say... if its 'not going to do any good'... then why the desperate measures.. and why the nationwide protest and worldwide attention????

 

and I never said that YOU said it was only illegals... I was jut affirming the fact that you said MOST Americans.. and not all Americans (the majority) don't agree with this bill)

Most Americans my ass..

 

 

 

says who?????? Who says that most Americans are opposed to this??? (or in favor of the bill) please show me these statistcs.... because let me just say... if its 'not going to do any good'... then why the desperate measures.. and why the nationwide protest and worldwide attention????

 

and I never said that YOU said it was only illegals... I was jut affirming the fact that you said MOST Americans.. and not all Americans (the majority) don't agree with this bill)

 

 

Because they THINK it will help, but its going ot have the opposite affect.

says who??????? where's this majority you speak of?? show me a poll or something.. lol

sorry.... double posted.. :)

apparently this 'waste of time' according to Mrcool-o proved different..

 

Immigrant marches, boycotts across U.S.

Illegal immigrants want to show importance to the country

 

The Associated Press

Updated: 4:33 p.m. ET May 1, 2006

 

 

LOS ANGELES - Hundreds of thousands of mostly Hispanic immigrants skipped work and took to the streets across the nation Monday, flexing their newfound political muscle in a boycott that, while far from unified, still succeeded in slowing or shutting many farms, factories, markets and restaurants.

 

From Los Angeles to Chicago, New Orleans to Houston, the “Day Without Immigrants” attracted widespread participation despite divisions among activists over whether a boycott would send the right message to Washington lawmakers considering sweeping immigration reform.

 

“We are the backbone of what America is, legal or illegal, it doesn’t matter,” said Melanie Lugo, who was among thousands attending a rally in Denver with her husband and their third-grade daughter. “We butter each other’s bread. They need us as much as we need them.”

 

An estimated 300,000 people gathered by early afternoon in Chicago, and hundreds of thousands more were expected later at rallies in New York. In Los Angeles, the Police Department estimated 50,000 people were protesting outside of the city hall, and NBC News reported that 10,000 more were rallying elsewhere in the city.

 

Organizers in San Francisco told police there were approximately 50,000 protesters in the streets on Monday, according to NBC News.

 

In Denver, a Police Department spokesperson said an estimated 75,000 people attended a rally there.

 

Smaller rallies were planned in more than 50 other cities across the nation, even in such far-flung places as Connecticut and South Dakota.

 

Fighting for freedom

Ernest Calderon, 38, came to the Chicago rally with a sign listing the names of his heroes: Abraham Lincoln, John F. Kennedy and Pancho Villa.

 

“Our heroes understood that they had to fight for freedom and democracy, and we are here doing the same,” said Calderon, a concrete worker who came from Mexico and gained his citizenship more than a decade ago. “We are here for the same reasons.”

 

In the Los Angeles area, normally bustling restaurants and markets were dark and truckers avoided the nation’s largest shipping port. In downtown Los Angeles, it appeared about one in three small businesses was closed.

 

Industries that rely on immigrant workers were clearly affected, though the impact was not uniform.

 

 

None of the 175 seasonal laborers who normally work Mike Collins’ 500 acres of Vidalia onion fields in southeastern Georgia showed up Monday.

 

“We need to be going wide open this time of year to get these onions out of the field,” he said. “We’ve got orders to fill. Losing a day in this part of the season causes a tremendous amount of problems.”

 

It was the same story in Indiana, where the owner of one landscaping business said he was at a loss.

 

 

Large toll on businesses

About 25 Hispanic workers — 90 percent of the field work force — never reported Monday to Salsbery Brothers Landscaping.

 

“We’re basically shut down in our busiest month of the year,” said owner Jeff Salsbery. “It’s going to cost me thousands of dollars.”

 

Beef and chicken processing plants also felt the pinch.

 

Eight of 14 Perdue Farms chicken plants closed for lack of workers. Tyson Foods Inc., the world’s largest meat producer, shuttered about a dozen of its more than 100 plants and saw “higher-than-usual absenteeism” at others, according to spokesman Gary Michaelson. Most of the closures were in states such as Iowa and Nebraska. Poultry plants also closed in North Carolina and Georgia.

 

In Minnesota, however, managers at eight plants operated by Hormel Foods Corp. reported normal levels of absences, said spokeswoman Julie Craven.

 

The sites where day laborers normally wait for employers became places for political statements.

 

The construction and nursery industries were among the hardest hit by the work stoppage in Florida.

 

 

Bill Spann, executive vice president of the Association of General Contractors, said more than half the workers at construction sites in Miami-Dade County did not show up Monday.

 

“If I lose my job, it’s worth it,” says Jose Cruz, an immigrant from El Salvador who protested with several thousand others in the rural Florida city of Homestead rather than work his construction job. “It’s worth losing several jobs to get my papers.”The impact on schools was not so clear. In Santa Ana, the Orange County seat, about 3,000 middle and high school students were absent. The 62,000-student district is about 90 percent Hispanic.

 

Not far away in the normally bustling Port of Long Beach, about 30 miles south of downtown Los Angeles, was eerily quiet, with many truck drivers avoiding work. Lunch truck operator Sammy Rodriguez, 77, said 100 trucks normally line up in the mornings outside the California United Terminals. On Monday, he said, just three or four showed up.

 

Some counter-protests

Some of the rallies drew small numbers of counter-protesters, including one in Pensacola, Fla.

 

“You should send all of the 13 million aliens home, then you take all of the welfare recipients who are taking a free check and make them do those jobs,” said Jack Culberson, a retired Army colonel who attended the Pensacola rally. “It’s as simple as that.”

 

Jesse Hernandez, who owns a Birmingham, Ala., company that supplies Hispanic laborers to companies around the Southeast, shut down his four-person office in solidarity with the demonstrations.

 

“Unfortunately, human nature is that you don’t really know what you have until you don’t have it,” he said.

 

NBC News contributed to this report.

 

© 2006 MSNBC.com

 

URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12573992/page/2/

 

:)

Still is going to have a very negative affect on the american public. most american dont want our backdoor wide open. america is our home and we want it locked up and safe. without anyone and everyone just walking in illegally.

 

Illegal immagration must be stopped.

again.... show me this proof.. where is this majority you speak of??? Show me the money, Nick.... where is this 'majority'??

again.... show me this proof.. where is this majority you speak of??? Show me the money' date=' Nick.... where is this 'majority'??[/quote']

 

 

show me some proof its not true.

 

because a very small part of our population protest doesnt mean most agree with them.

nice way to avoid the question... :rolleyes:

 

 

I never said it would put the economy to a halt.. but people were definitely inconvenienced today... and money was lost. Businesses will regain their loses tomorrow.. but the point was made.. period.

 

 

so I will resort to kindy-garten tactics and say this... "I asked YOU first..." :P

Ill just let time prove me right. in the next few years we'll see more and more americans wanting more laws and more protection on the border.

closed minded Americans... yes. You're probably right.. sadly.

Psht. I say we let actual Americans boycott for a day and see what happens.

 

Our country is able to function without illegal immigrants, but they can't function without us. So basically, we have a little more authority over them. OH YEAH, and it is sorta OUR nation. Be legal or leave.

:lol: nice. :rolleyes:

 

I agree that some sort of reform needs to be done.. but to criminalize these people is insane.

 

Thats my opposition.

I see the dictator has brought out yet another ill thought policy.. when is someone gonna stop him and his cronies...

 

Also in saying that I also have come to the opinion that Mr Bush and co are directly responsible for the worlds oil prices going up as they are..

 

i) I am certain he has a intrest in some oil compaines so that with the price going up he stands to benifit.

ii) With his unfiar and unjust stance on Iran and the further fret of another war (with a country that is not attacking his is also putting up the price.

iii) His lack of action when it comes to building further oil refenaries is also driving up the price...

 

I am so glad I am leaving the UK soon, hopefully then I will not be in line for the direct consquences of his dictarship and pre modonic rule... As blair I guess will coninue to back him.

where are you moving to then?? (completely off topic)

I see the dictator has brought out yet another ill thought policy.. when is someone gonna stop him and his cronies...

 

Also in saying that I also have come to the opinion that Mr Bush and co are directly responsible for the worlds oil prices going up as they are..

 

i) I am certain he has a intrest in some oil compaines so that with the price going up he stands to benifit.

ii) With his unfiar and unjust stance on Iran and the further fret of another war (with a country that is not attacking his is also putting up the price.

iii) His lack of action when it comes to building further oil refenaries is also driving up the price...

 

I am so glad I am leaving the UK soon, hopefully then I will not be in line for the direct consquences of his dictarship and pre modonic rule... As blair I guess will coninue to back him.

 

YES, because a leader of a country controlling his borders means he's a dictator...good one....

 

for cryign out loud EVERY world leader and country controls their borderes more then we do.

 

Yes bush is responisble for high oil prices. seeing as how most of the world's oil comes from arab nations that bush has no control over, its must be true. you know the people pumping out the oil and making it, OPEC have nothing to do with oil prices its all decided by bush.