Last Thursday, February 16th, immigrants all around the country were boycotting school, work, and businesses. The movement is a response to Trump’s agenda in sealing the border from Mexico and ban travel of 7 major Muslim countries. Many businesses were closing for the day in order to respect the workers’ wishes. The protest day follows the day the immigration enforcement agents alarmed immigrants’ rights and arrested about 680 people.  

In Washington there were at least 2 schools that were closed down due to the lack of student attendance. There is a Spanish-English charter school that carried out the normal school day as best as possible knowing that more than 40% of their staff was missing. Students whose families chose to participate during this protest are given excused absences while staff members were allowed to leave for the day.

Trump supporters have argued that they have nothing against immigrants. They say that illegal immigrants coming in from Mexico are a problem claiming they pose legal and security issues.

There were 20 other protests held that day in major cities across the country. The cities included New York City, Philadelphia, Boston, and Austin. The protests were shown on Facebook as events. One Facebook event said Thursday would be considered “peaceful” but as usual the protests stopped businesses.

The point of this boycott was to show the great impact immigrants are to America: instead of focusing on the cons of immigration, people should focus on the positives.