Several restaurants in the D.C. area will be closed on Monday for a “Day Without Immigrants,” a protest designed to show the importance of immigrants’ contributions to their communities.
The movement encourages immigrants to stay home from work and school and refrain from shopping amid a crackdown on immigration from the Trump Administration.
“DC depends deeply on immigrants, who work vital jobs in our local economy, pay taxes & make the city a vibrant place to live,” Republic Cantina, a participating restaurant in D.C., said in an Instagram post Sunday. “We’ve been dismayed to see the rollout of policies that tear immigrants from their homes — which is both inhumane & will cause massive harm to communities and to small business.”
Some of the other establishments participating include Pearl’s Bagels and Hiraya in D.C. and La Casita Pupusería, Tacos El Pariente and Centrado Café Shop in Maryland.
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“A day without immigrants is a day without bagels,” Pearl’s Bagels said in an Instagram story Sunday. “Our staff will receive a paid day off in order to make their voices heard and stress the importance of immigrants to our community and local economy.”
Since returning to the Oval Office, President Donald Trump has unfurled multiple policies relating to immigration, including an attempt to end the constitutional right to birthright citizenship and allowing arrests at schools, churches and other sensitive locations. There have also been U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids in major U.S. cities with hundreds of arrests per day, according to data released by ICE via X.
There was also a Day Without Immigrants in February 2017 in response to immigration policies enacted during Trump’s first term.