America Showed How Empty The Country Would Be Without Immigrants

Jorge Rodriguez-Jimenez - 02/16/17 - things that matter
credit: @helwarosa / @CristinaBolling / Twitter

Immigrants and immigrant allies nationwide are on strike today as part of the #DayWithoutImmigrants protest. The protests are in response to President Trump’s continuous attacks on immigrants, both undocumented and legal. Americans from Washington D.C. to Los Angeles are closing stores, missing work, skipping school and protesting by the thousands in solidarity with all immigrants. Here are some photos and tweets from the multiple protests.

Many immigrant-run neighborhoods in major U.S. cities turned into ghost towns.


Immigrants and their supporters used Feb. 16 as a day of protest and strike against President Trump and his immigration policies. Since taking office, Trump has banned immigrants and refugees from 7 predominately-Muslim countries and Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested more than 600 people within a week.

Schools saw major drops in attendance as parents kept children home is support of the protests.


According to the New York Times, KIPP Austin Comunidad, a majority-Latino public charter school in Austin, Texas, only 60 percent of the students were in class.

Several museums covered or removed all works of art that were produced by immigrants further showing the impact of Trump’s immigration policies if they are expanded.

@WBUR / Twitter
CREDIT: @WBUR / Twitter


According to USA Today, museums like Davis Museum at Wellesley College works of art by people who immigrated to the U.S. will not be on display for a few days as protest.

The protesters were all ages but they had the same message: love and acceptance.


❤️ ❤️ ❤️

Twitter users were using the hashtag to thank their immigrant parents.


Tbh, that is most of us.

And speaking of parents, many people were protesting for their immigrant family members.


This is what makes America already a great nation.

As the Chicago protesters chanted, “El pueblo unido jamás será vencido.”


Translation: “The people united will never be defeated.”

This viral photo made a reappearance.


S A V A G E !

The nation’s capitol was alive with protesters taking to the streets.


Protests in D.C. resulted in many eating establishments for the Pentagon, White House and Capitol Hill to close or operate on limited menus putting a squeeze on government officials, according to CNN.

Homestead, Fla., which is about an hour south of Miami, saw their own demonstration.


There were also demonstrations in North Carolina.


“The really important dynamic to note is this is not antagonistic, employee-against-employer,” Janet Murguia, the president of the Hispanic rights group National Council of La Raza, told The Charlotte Observer. “This is employers and workers standing together, not in conflict. Businesses cannot function without immigrant workers today.”

Protesters are hoping that the nationwide demonstration will show the Trump administration just what it will look like if there were no immigrants.


“It just shows that people are anxious, that people want to raise their voices in opposition to Trump’s policies and they’re not OK with what he’s been pushing and they’re going to have their voices heard one way or another,” Jose Lara, the dean of students at the Santee Education Complex south of downtown L.A., told LA Times.

For the thousands marching, it seems that la lucha sigue.


Stay safe out there, everyone.


READ: Tech Workers Protested Trump’s Immigration Ban In San Francisco

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