Today, cities across the country participated in a “Day Without Immigrants” strike.

Did you notice? Because we didn’t.

Organized by The Cosecha Movement, the strike promised hundreds of thousands of participants to, “demonstrate that the country depends on the labor of immigrants and working class people of color.”

The goal? To, “change the conversation on immigration in the United States.”

Cosecha is planning strikes and marches in over 40 cities across the country, along with mass student walkouts and escalated actions. “This Day Without Immigrants is the first step in a series of strikes and boycotts that will change the conversation on immigration in the United States,” said Maria Fernanda Cabello, a undocumented leader and the May 1st campaign coordinator with Movimiento Cosecha. “We believe that when the country recognizes it depends on immigrant labor to function, we will win permanent protection from deportation for the 11 million undocumented immigrants; the right to travel freely to visit our loved ones abroad, and the right to be treated with dignity and respect. After years of broken promises, raids, driving in fear of being pulled over, not being able to bury our loved ones, Trump is just the last straw.” “On this day, we will not go to work. We will not send our children to school. We will not buy anything,” said Francisca Santiago, a farmworker from Homestead, Florida who will be joining the May 1st Strike. “We are the workers who harvest and prepare food, who repair homes, who come into office buildings after 7pm to clean them. But on May 1st, instead of going to work we will be in the streets celebrating our communities, and demanding the permanent protection, dignity and respect that our people deserve.”

Not surprisingly, the strike is backed by major labor unions and other progressive orgs:

Partners Include: SEIU United Service Workers West, The Food Chain Workers Alliance , the UNITE HERE Tech Cafeteria Workers, the Fight For 15, National Nurses United, Communications Workers of America, Our Revolution, LA RED: A Project of the PICO National Network, Amalgamated Transit Union, American Postal Workers Union, AFL-CIO, United States Student Association and Sum of Us

During a similar strike in February, dozens of participants received a hard lesson in the ways of the private sector when they were fired after skipping work to attend “Day Without Immigrant” protests. NBC reported at the time:

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. Restaurants and day cares were among the businesses in states like Florida, Tennessee, Oklahoma and New York where bosses fired workers after they didn’t show up for work in order to protest. In Nolensville, Tennessee, nearly 20 employees at Bradley Coatings, Incorporated — a commercial painting company — were laid off after participating in the nationwide strike on Thursday, NBC4 reported. The company’s attorney, Robert Peal, said in a statement obtained by the news station that all employees were told they risked termination if they skipped work on Thursday, but 18 did so anyway.

The public is *so* interested in the “Day Without Immigrants” protest, that a whole three people were tuned into the protest Facebook live:

These types of movements continue to beclown themselves, making issues where none exist based on false narratives. Just yesterday, Congress came to an agreement on a short-term budget bill that’s missing one major “anti-immigrant” allocation — the southern border wall.

Follow Kemberlee on Twitter @kemberleekaye



