Drive around Gilroy today and you will find a number of closed shops in downtown or along the major thoroughfares – Welburn Avenue and First Street.
Instead of serving lunch to hungry patrons, filling birthday cake orders or selling sports gear, these bakeries, clothing stores and taquerias have joined businesses in cities across the nation, from Washington DC to Watsonville, California for A Day Without Immigrants.
Business owners closed their doors, parents kept their kids home from school, and consumers kept their wallets shut to show solidarity with immigrants and demonstrate – by not participating in the daily grind – how much immigrants contribute to American society and the economy.
The mass protest started as The Great American Boycott on May 1, 2006 when immigration reform activists asked supporters to refrain from buying, selling, working, and attending school, to demonstrate the extent to which the labor obtained from illegal immigrants is needed, according to Wikipedia.
The annual demonstration has reached special significance this year in light of recent ICE raids and President Trump’s anti-immigrant rhetoric and executive actions.
