Nation braces for ‘Day Without Immigrants’

updated 4:05 a.m. ET May 1, 2006

NEW YORK - Now that immigrants have grabbed the nation’s attention, what next?

Monday has been set aside for immigrants to boycott work, school and shopping to show how much they matter to their communities. But with some growing tired of street protests, and others afraid they’ll be deported or fired for walking out, people are planning to support the effort in myriad ways.

Some will work but buy nothing on Monday. Others will protest at lunch breaks or at rallies after work. There will be church services, candlelight vigils, picnics and human chains.

The range of activities shows both how powerful the immigrants’ rights movement has become in a matter of weeks, and that organizers don’t yet have a clear focus on its next step.

“It’s highly unpredictable what’s going to happen,” said Harley Shaiken, director of the Center for Latin American studies at the University of California, Berkeley. “What unites everyone that’s going to do something on May 1 is they are making visible their strong feelings.”

Thanks to the success of previous rallies plus media attention, planning for Monday’s events, collectively called Un Dia Sin Inmigrantes — A Day Without Immigrants — is widespread.

NBC VIDEO Mixed feelings April 30: In the immigrant community, there are mixed feelings about the boycott. NBC's James Hattori reports. Nightly News

Officials in Los Angeles braced for huge crowds: Assistant Police Chief George Gascon said as many as 500,000 people could take part.

In smaller cities such as Allentown, Pa., Omaha, Neb., and Knoxville, Tenn., immigrants and their allies have been going door to door with fliers, making posters and sharpening speeches. In New Mexico, restaurants cooked meals this weekend that they’ll donate food for Monday picnics in Santa Fe and Albuquerque.

In Pomona, Calif., about 30 miles east of Los Angeles, dozens of men who frequent a day labor center voted unanimously to close Monday, said Mike Nava, the center’s director.

“If anyone even comes around looking for work that day,” Nava said, “the men want him suspended.”

The step beyond marches
Some insist that a boycott is the next key step — beyond marches — to show the nation just how much economic power undocumented workers hold. “The marches are a tool, but they are being overused,” said Mahonrry Hidalgo, head of the immigration committee of New Jersey’s Latino Leadership Alliance. Like civil rights boycotts of decades past, he said, “this could finally be the spark for our people to advance.”

In New Jersey, Rhode Island and Pennsylvania, people boycotting work will march to the offices of elected officials to urge them to support pro-immigrant legislation. In California, although a spokeswoman for Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said a boycott would “hurt everyone,” Democratic state senators passed a resolution supporting walkouts.

Still, there’s a big divide over the boycott’s merits.

“To encourage people not to go to work or children not to go to school is counterproductive,” Sen. Trent Lott, R-Miss., said Sunday on CNN’s “Late Edition.”

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