Immigrants show off their clout by
absence of workers
THOUSANDS RALLY; MANY BUSINESSES CRIPPLED
U.S. businesses absorb brunt of boycott
BY GILLIAN FLACCUS, Associated Press
Immigrants made their point Monday: A lot of work wouldn’t get done without them.
Hundreds of thousands of mostly Hispanic immigrants skipped work and took to the streets, flexing their economic muscle in a nationwide boycott that succeeded in slowing or shutting many farms, factories, markets and restaurants.
From Los Angeles to Chicago, Houston to New Orleans, 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."
Police estimated 400,000 people marched through Chicago’s business district. In Los Angeles, there was no announced count, but one law enforcement official put it at about 300,000. Smaller rallies in cities from Pennsylvania and Connecticut to Arizona and South Dakota attracted hundreds.
In Los Angeles, protesters wearing white and waving U.S. flags sang the national anthem in English as traditional Mexican dancers wove through the crowd. In Chicago, illegal immigrants from Ireland and Poland marched alongside Hispanics as office workers on lunch breaks clapped. In Phoenix, protesters formed a human chain in front of Wal-Mart and Home Depot stores.
Many carried signs in Spanish that translated to "We are America" and "Today we march, tomorrow we vote." Others waved Mexican flags or wore hats and scarves from their native countries. Some chanted "USA" while others shouted slogans such as "Si se puede," Spanish for "Yes, it can be done." Others were more irreverent, wearing T-shirts that read: "I’m illegal. So what?"
Among the demonstrators in Homestead, Fla., was Leonardo Hernandez, 24, a construction worker and computer science student at Miami-Dade College Homestead Campus, who is also president of the student government.
"I am undocumented, and even after I graduate I won’t be able to find a job," Hernandez said. "My father is a citizen, but I arrived 10 years ago and I applied then, but it’ll be another year until they process mine."
Hernandez wore an Uncle Sam hat and a necklace with red, blue and white flowers.
The boycott was organized by immigrant activists angered by federal legislation that would criminalize illegal immigrants and fortify the U.S.-Mexico border. Its goal was to raise awareness about immigrants’ economic power.
Economists said there can be no dispute that immigrants — including those who came into the country illegally — wield significant clout in the U.S. economy.
"If illegal immigration came to a standstill, it would disrupt the economy," said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Economy.com. "It would lead to higher prices for many goods and services, and some things literally would not get done. It would be a major adjustment for our economy, for sure."
While the full impact of the one-day "Day Without Immigrants" boycott was hard to immediately gauge, it was palpable in some industries with a heavily Hispanic work force. On-the-job turnout was dramatically lower at some locales in the meatpacking, masonry, restaurant and landscaping businesses, and numerous companies closed for the day as immigrants, legal and illegal, took the day off for rallies and marches.
None of the 175 seasonal laborers who normally work Mike Collins’ 500 acres of Vidalia onion fields in southeastern Georgia showed up.
"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 a landscaping business said he was at a loss. 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."
Yet with no farm labor to pick vegetables in California, few butchers to cut meat in the Midwest and a paucity of restaurant workers in New York, many politicians and pro-immigrant groups questioned whether the May Day demonstrations would cause a backlash against their cause.
The White House came down against the day of protests.
"The president is not a fan of boycotts," said White House press secretary Scott McClellan. "People have the right to peacefully express their views, but the president wants to see comprehensive reform pass the Congress so that he can sign it into law."
Politicians sympathetic to immigrants, meanwhile, worried that the boycott could threaten the national goodwill achieved after widespread pro-immigrant protests took place two weeks ago.
"The idea was to show the world, or show America, the economic impact of immigrants in this country," Sen. Mel Martinez, R-Fla., told CNN. "The thing that I hear most often about this immigrant group of people is that they are hard workers, or they’re here to work; they want to make a contribution. And boycotts is not the right way to go about it."
Union organizers and boycott supporters, however, rejected the idea of a backlash, insisting that their work to educate Americans about immigration has already made big strides in shaping national policy.
"We’ve had an impact. No one is talking about making illegal immigrants felons anymore," said Marc Grossman, the spokesman for the United Farm Workers union.
This report includes information from Cox News Service and the New York