'A Day Without an Immigrant'

Organizers plan massive boycott on Monday to stop business as usual

USA (Hispanic News) — Meatpacking plants will shut down. Markets won't open. Trucks won't roll. Students will walk out of school. Millions of people will take to America's streets in possibly unprecedented numbers.

Organizers of the May Day walkout call it el gran paro — "the big stop" — and "a day without immigrants." Building on huge marches staged in recent weeks, the boycotts and rallies in many cities will demonstrate immigrants' economic importance as Congress debates legislation, says Armando Navarro of the California-based National Alliance for Human Rights.

"It was one thing to march," Navarro says. "Now we're going to hit 'em where it hurts — in the pocketbooks."

'Substantial' participation

As many as 12 million illegal immigrants are in the USA, and they make up about 5% of the workforce, the Pew Hispanic Center says.

Raul Murillo, director of the Los Angeles chapter of the Hermandad Mexicana immigrant organization, says he's among those acting to oppose a bill passed by the House of Representatives in December that would make illegal immigrants felons. The Senate is still considering an immigration bill.

Businesses with largely immigrant workforces are preparing for Monday in varying ways:

• Cargill, the No. 2 U.S. beef producer and No. 3 pork producer, is closing seven meat-processing plants with 14,000 employees in Iowa, Texas, Kansas, Nebraska, Illinois and Colorado. "We share a lot of the same concerns many of our employees have," spokesman Mark Klein says. "The immigration process is broken, and we need true solutions to it."

• Tyson Foods is discouraging workers from missing shifts, spokesman Gary Mickelson says. "We don't want our team members to jeopardize their good employment records and incomes by taking unauthorized time away from work," he says.

• All Las Vegas casinos are asking workers to stay on the job, sign petitions to lawmakers and attend a downtown "celebration of immigration" at 6 p.m., says Yvette Monet of MGM Mirage.

• The 17 Spanish-language radio stations owned by Clear Channel Communications will broadcast music without comment from disc jockeys. "Words are my life, but sometimes silence makes a bigger point," morning host Alex Lucas says.

Many Hispanic-owned businesses will be closed. Salvador Pedroza Moreno, owner of Economy Roofing in Chicago, says he'll give his seven workers the day off with pay to attend a march. In Tucson, Ricardo Cazares is shutting Alejandro's Tortilla Factory & Bakery, which has 55 workers. "There are sales that I know will be lost, but if we want something, we have to pay a price for it," he says.

Rallies are scheduled in many cities. Jessica Aranda of the March 10 Movement, a Chicago coalition that drew 100,000 to a march last month, says Monday will draw a bigger crowd. "Our community is coming into our own and realizing our own power," she says.

In nine New York City neighborhoods, "human chains" of Hispanic store owners, workers and customers will link hands for about 20 minutes, says Chung-Wha Hong, executive director of the New York Immigration Coalition.