A “Day Without Immigrants” Strike Creates Solidarity---Within Limits
By Juan B. García
Exterior of Mole Poblano, open for business, located at 290 New Main St., Yonkers, New York. Photos by Juan B. Garcia.
The Trump administration’s hard-line stances on a range of policies have precipitated ongoing protests across the U.S., with immigration law one of the most hotly contested issues. These efforts to mobilize public coalitions are creating new popular alliances. While these attempts remain a work in progress, they seek to build broader solidarity among and between diverse groups, as demonstrated by the nationwide strike, a “Day Without Immigrants,” that took place on Thursday, Feb. 16, 2017. To protest Donald Trump’s plans to build a wall and deport millions of undocumented immigrants, the campaign asked foreign-born people, regardless of legal status, not to work or shop to demonstrate the importance of their labor and consumer spending on the U.S. economy. The idea was to make merchants feel the absence of immigrant workers. In 2014, Pew Research Center estimated that there were 43.6 million foreign-born people in the U.S. Out of those 43.6 million, 11.1 million were unauthorized immigrants. The campaign spread mostly on Facebook and via WhatsApp, and many workers and businesses participated. “I [closed my restaurant] to express my solidarity with the [immigrant] community, to support the cause and to show that undocumented immigrants are [an important] part of the economy,” said César García, 38, owner of Mole Poblano, a Mexican restaurant located in Yonkers. García said, on the day of the strike, most of the restaurants in Yonkers closed. His employees didn’t go to work and were pleased that García supported the strike.
However, the somewhat haphazard way he became involved in the action demonstrates the vicissitudes of decentralized protest organized on social media. A few days before joining the strike, César García read a post on Facebook announcing it. There is a lot of fake news on the internet and he wanted to make sure that the strike was real. He started to investigate by calling Qué Buena 92.7 FM, a radio station that broadcasts a Spanish language regional Mexican format--- owned by Univision’s radio division--- where he talked to DJ José Luis Arcos.
Then García called The Jaime Lucero Mexican Studies Institute at CUNY, located on the second floor of Carman Hall at Lehman. The institute serves as a source for the Mexican community in New York promoting college enrollment, research and advocacy.
Yohan García, Anchoring Achievement Coordinator at The Jaime Lucero, answered and told César García that the strike was real but that there was no organization behind it.
The day of the national strike, Mole Poblano closed in solidarity with the immigrant community.
Yohan García and his colleagues at The Jaime Lucero talked about the campaign and its lack of centralization. The day of the strike Yohan García did his daily Thursday routine, taking his niece to school and then going to school himself, to Fordham University where he is a graduate student. He happened to be off from work.
“My niece asked to be taken to school,” said Yohan García. He added that he didn’t feel he was really a part of the strike.“I’m a grad student at Fordham and since I pay my tuition out of pocket, I don’t give myself the option of missing classes. Each day of class cost me more than $400 dollars,” García said. “I’m glad that a lot of community members participated, yet, I believe a more organized event [was] needed to make a real impact,” said Yohan García. His colleague, Interim Director of the Jaime Lucero Mexican Studies Institute José Higuera López, mentioned that although the nationwide strike a “Day Without Immigrants” was eventful and it had an impact on [the Bronx] community, it would have been much more impactful if it had a clear organizing body, leadership roles, and guidelines.
“I believe a more organized event [was] needed to make a real impact.”
- Yohan Garcia, Anchoring Achievement Coordinator at The Jaime Lucero
According to a 2017 article in The New York Times about the strike “owners of some smaller businesses said that they supported the idea but that the campaign was too hastily organized to justify closing.” Several activists said that “as far as they knew there was no national organization behind [the campaign].” A problem a protest like this presented was that it worked for middle and upper class people that could afford to take a day off from work without getting fired. NBC News reported that “dozens of protesters across the country were fired from their jobs after skipping work to take part in last week’s ‘Day Without Immigrants’ demonstration.” “I think that the employers who fired immigrants that did not go to work were not supporting the movement,” said Neil Omacharan, 23, a junior at Lehman. “I think it was unfair and unjust to fire them,” he continued. He also said that the day of the strike immigrants just wanted to let everyone know the importance they have in this country.
Higuera López remarked that the Women’s March provided clear leadership and a message that rallied national support. “Other marches like the ones organized by Make the Road New York, in which I and other colleagues have also participated on our own personal time and weekends,” said Higuera López, “established clear guidelines and time frames that allowed all people participating to understand the rules of engagement.”
Compared to the “Day Without Immigrants” strike, upcoming marches and pacific rallies on immigrants such as La Marcha de Mayo, May Day and No Ban/No Wall Vigil are centralized and organized and provide specific hours and places of gathering.
The next day after the strike, César García said that his customers reacted positively to his solidarity.
“They were happy that we were supporting the cause,” he said.