South Florida-based students, workers and business owners showed solidarity with the rest of the nation in the ‘Day Without Immigrants’ strike.
They staged protests, skipped school and closed businesses in defiance of President Donald Trump’s immigration policies.
The nationwide protest was aimed at Trump’s efforts to boost deportations, build a wall at the Mexican border and temporarily close the nation’s doors to thousands of refugees from around the world and immigrants from seven Muslim-majority nations.
Trump’s executive order was rejected by a Federal Appellate Court last week.
At the Palm Beach County-based school, Highland Elementary, 437 students reportedly missed school Thursday.
Other schools in Palm Beach County also had high absences.
Scores of people also gathered in front of Homestead City Hall to protest Trump’s policies. Homestead has a large immigrant population due in part, to farmworkers working in the fields in South Miami-Dade.
Business owners in the area closed restaurants and stores.
The protest even reached the U.S. Capitol,of Washington DC where even a Senate coffee shop closed as employees did not show up to work.
The protests had the biggest impact on the restaurant industry, which long has been a first step for many immigrants, with its jobs for kitchen workers and servers. Sushi bars, Brazilian steakhouses, Mexican eateries and fine dining establishments in New York, San Francisco and other large cities closed for the day, either because workers stayed home or owners sympathized with their immigrant employees.
