Rahban Algazzali of San Leandro regrets the decision he made Nov. 8, which his friends and family have not let him forget.

After the Yemen native and Muslim American voted for Donald Trump, and after Trump tried to ban citizens of several majority-Muslim countries from entering the U.S., Algazzali sent a rather ordinary photo of his son dressed in traditional Yemeni garb to family members.

“Your son should get used to wearing those clothes,” one of his relatives responded, “because we are going to be sent back to Yemen with the president that you voted for.”

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On Thursday, the contrite Algazzali shut down all five of the Oakland markets he co-owns as part of the “Day Without Immigrants,” a nationwide protest attacking Trump’s moves to restrict immigration.

One of the shops — Gazzali’s Supermarket — is a popular store in the heart of East Oakland. Algazzali said he had never before shut down any of the stores, for any reason, in the more than 10 years they’ve been open.

In the Bay Area and beyond, scores of businesses from corner stores to high-end restaurants took the day off, while many students stayed off campuses — an effort to display how central immigrants are to the country’s fabric.

“I felt like they had the right to say it — I should be ashamed of myself,” Algazzali, 36, said of the criticism he received from family members. “I feel like I want to put the message out that I am ashamed that I gave him my vote, and I wish I could repeal and replace my vote for him.”

The “Day Without Immigrants” action reflects the desire of Trump opponents to keep momentum behind a protest movement. It comes after Trump signed a string of executive orders authorizing, among other things, a wall at the Mexican border and a U.S. entry ban on citizens of several majority-Muslim countries — which was overturned by the courts.

In the Bay Area alone, more than two dozen restaurants, including Tommy’s Mexican and Little Chihuahua in San Francisco, shut down for the day. Celebrity chefs Rick Bayless in Chicago and Jose Andres in Washington closed their restaurants, and even the Pentagon was affected, with six shops, including Starbucks, shuttered.

Dominica Rice-Cisneros, the owner and chef at Mexican restaurant Cosecha in downtown Oakland, said she closed as a form of solidarity. Rice-Cisneros, a 43-year-old Mexican American, said most of the neighbors with whom she shares space in Swan’s Market were also closed.

“We want them to realize how lonely and sad it is when the market is closed and when there isn’t great activity,” Rice-Cisneros said. “Without that mix of Mexican Americans, Asian Americans and immigrants there is no community.”

The movement spread to San Francisco as well. On Wednesday, chef Gabriela Cámara was nominated as a semifinalist for a prestigious James Beard Award. A day later, she shut down her restaurant Cala in Hayes Valley. Cámara runs several prominent restaurants in Mexico City.

“We cannot forget that here in the U.S. we are all immigrants,” she said.

Many schools across the region felt the impact of the protest. San Jose’s Franklin McKinley School District, composed of 17 schools, had more than 1,100 absences Thursday, 13 percent of the student body.

“The district stands with the community in solidarity in recognizing that these are difficult times. The district will always be a beacon of support,” said Rolando Bonilla, a district spokesman.

In Fresno County, upward of 1,700 students were absent in the Mendota Unified School District — more than half of the student body.

One of the Bay Area students who stayed home was Yinia Yanez, an 18-year-old senior at Mission High in San Francisco who was accepted into Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, a federal program to allow temporary residence to certain people who had entered the U.S. as children.

Yanez said she felt defeated after learning of Trump’s executive orders denying federal funding to sanctuary cities and expanding the group of people who could be targeted for deportation.

Then this week she saw reports of a 23-year-old native of Mexico who was also in the DACA program being detained in Seattle. She’s now wondering whether it’s worth it to apply to college — though she spent Thursday working on scholarship applications.

“I think it’s important to be in this together,” said Yanez, whose mother stayed home with her, missing work for what she said was the first time. “This country is run by immigrants and today’s absence is going to show how crucial and how important we are.”

Thursday’s actions came as Trump announced his administration is working on a new version of its travel ban after the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals put a halt to the original version last week.

Yemen was one of the countries included in the original order, which caused chaos and confusion at airports across the globe, including San Francisco’s.

Algazzali closed his stores as part of an effort led by the Yemeni Alliance Committee, a local community organization formed after President Trump was inaugurated. Leaders of the demonstration estimated that roughly 300 businesses owned by Yemeni Americans, from Richmond to Bakersfield, closed as part of the protest, which comes weeks after hundreds of Yemeni American-owned shops in New York closed in protest of Trump’s travel ban.

“It was long overdue that the Yemeni American community stands up in the Bay Area. We saw what they did in New York a few weeks ago and we’re following their lead to raise awareness to these unjust policies impacting our communities,” said Jehan Hakim, a spokeswoman for the organization.

Algazzali now says he didn’t think Trump would end up implementing policies like the travel ban. He voted for Trump, he said, because he viewed him as a businessman and outsider.

“I wished I could send him a message,” Algazzali said. “‘Hey, I’m a Muslim American citizen originally born in Yemen who gave you my support in hope of you making America great again — and this is what I get for my vote and support?’”

Hamed Aleaziz is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: haleaziz@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @haleaziz