Immigrants rally across the US
By Michael Conlon 2 hours, 2 minutes ago
CHICAGO (Reuters) - From the streets of New York to the lettuce fields of California, hundreds of thousands of immigrants stayed away from jobs and boycotted stores on Monday, showing their economic clout in a bid to legitimize millions of workers in the United States illegally.
In what organizers called "A Day Without Immigrants," rallies across the country closed hundreds of restaurants, shops and factories. Construction projects were disrupted, day labor jobs went begging, children stayed home from school and waves of humanity poured through city streets.
"If these people are good enough to pay taxes, they're good enough to be citizens," said Chris Delgado, a tax preparer from Skokie, Illinois, who came to a Chicago rally.
Los Angeles braced for two rallies where more than a million were expected. In Chicago, more than 300,000 people marched for miles, waving flags and pushing baby strollers, while mass demonstrations were held in Denver, Houston, San Francisco and many other cities.
The common bond was a bid to pressure the U.S. Congress into granting rights for up to 12 million illegal immigrants and scuttle a proposal that would criminalize them and anyone who tries to help them.
Thousands also marched in Mexico in solidarity with their compatriots who make up the bulk of the undocumented immigrants in the United States.
It was not clear what the economic impact of the boycott would be, but the loss may not be as big as the realization that illegal immigrants make up an important part of the economy, said James Glassman, senior economist at JP Morgan.
The action is huge symbolically, added Bill Cheney, chief economist at John Hancock Financial Service, but "unlikely to have a measurable impact" for business in the month or the current quarter.
FLOOD ACROSS THE BORDER
Illegal immigrants, who flood across the Mexican border at a rate of half a million a year, work mostly at low-paid jobs in agriculture, construction, restaurants, as janitors, meat packers, maids and gardeners and many other occupations.
Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc. said 29 of its more than 500 eateries were closed Monday because employees didn't show up but it was largely "business as usual" across the chain.
At the headquarters of American Apparel in Los Angeles, the largest garment factory in the United States, sewing machines fell silent when managers shut down to allow all 3,000 workers a chance to join the protests.
"The government has to realize how important Latinos are to this economy and give us full rights," said American Apparel customer service representative Ruben Eustaquio.
In Florida, about of half the state's farm workers stayed away from the fields, according to the Florida Fruit and Vegetable Association and many workers abandoned construction sites, according to contracting officials.
In New York City, demonstrators formed "human chains" at several points around the city. Hundreds, including school children, lined the streets in Queens waving U.S. and Latin American flags and banners saying, "We are Americans" and "Full Rights for All Immigrants."
The Catholic Church has come down strongly on the side of the immigrants in the debate, and priests at the parish level helped organize many of the protests. Cardinal Roger Mahony in Los Angeles has suggested he would order his priests to disregard any law against assisting undocumented immigrants.
The demonstrations drew citizens as well as those who want to become citizens.
"They're going to degrade my citizenship for helping somebody out, or just riding in a car with them?" said Wences Martinez, 30, born in Chicago of illegal immigrants. "It's like the British before the Revolutionary War."
Kuwaiti immigrant Hatem Zahdan, 40, joined a group of Muslims at the Chicago rally. "I came to this country because its freer than where I came from ... and we need to keep it that way," Zahdan said.
In California's Salinas Valley, known as America's Salad Bowl, fields were empty and rows of produce unattended as workers heeded calls to stay home.
(Additional reporting by Jeanne King and Joseph Giannone in New York, Andrew Stern and Jame Kelleher in Chicago, Aarthi Sivaraman and Alexandria Sage in Los Angeles, and Jim Loney in Miami)