Thursday will be a day featuring yet another protest, this time called “A Day Without Immigrants.” The protests are aimed at President Donald Trump’s hardline stance on immigration and are supposed to send a message that the country will be worse off without immigrants.
Here are five things you need to know about these protests.
1. The protests involve immigrantsâlegal and illegalâgoing on strike for the day. According to the New York Times, through the encouragement of social media, immigrants throughout the countryâmostly in leftist citiesâwill not work or purchase various items to make the point that immigrants are necessary for the economy. Most notably, various restaurants will restrict their services or will be closed for the day altogether. There will also be walkouts occurring at some schools; others will even be closed. Marches are planned as well in these cities.
2. Previous “Day Without Immigrants” protests were held in 2006. They were sparked by Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner’s (R-WI) bill that would have built “new border fencing, required companies to use E-Verify to make sure their employees were legal, and â most controversially â created a criminal penalty for being in the U.S. without authorization,” according to the Washington Times. On May 1 of that year, the “Day Without Immigrants” protests occurred in numerous cities, featuring marches and rallies clamoring for amnesty. There were 500,000 protesters in Los Angeles, CA.
3. The protest in Washington, D.C. featured a list of demands that are incredibly ridiculous. Per The Blaze:
- The removal of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers from Washington, D.C.;
- Local governments must make up for financial losses from federal funds stripped from so-called âsanctuary citiesâ;
- The immediate passage and funding of the Language Access for Education Amendment Act of 2015, which would increase the standards of language access of education and government series for all non-English proficient D.C. residents, according to Council member David Grosso at the time;
- The removal of the undocumented mark from D.C. driverâs licenses;
- Affirmation that Washington, D.C. will not support the creation of a Muslim registry or surveillance; and
- Cease âunchecked police violence committed against immigrants, including black people and all people of color.â
In other words, the protesters essentially don’t want any sort of immigration law enforcement to occur and are protesting a Muslim registry, which Trump has never proposed.
4. The entire premise of the protests is disingenuous. Jazz Shaw notes at Hot Air that the focus of Trump’s policies is about cracking down on illegal immigration, not legal immigration, but the protests suggest that Trump is rounding all immigrants, legal and illegal. Shaw seethingly writes these protests are “an act of fraud”:
I have yet to meet a single person among the ranks of conservatives concerned about border security who is opposed to legal immigration or fails to value the contributions of those who come to our country following well-defined rules to make a new life. Further, the âdisruptionâ they are seeking could be generated by targeting any demographic group in the nation. A day without women, without Jews, without left-handed people or even, yes, white folks, would result in what the New York Times describes as a âhit to the stomach.â
The truly nauseating portion of this is the fact that the entire concept is an insult to those who followed the rules, came to America and made a new life for themselves. This so-called protest is encouraging them to lose a dayâs pay on behalf of those who refused to follow the rules and continue to break the laws set forth under the Constitution which naturalized citizens have sworn to defend.
But what the heck. Let them hold their protest, put a dent in everyoneâs profits and bask in the glow of media adoration which will surely follow. Who cares if it makes any sense? There are political points to be scored.
Many people on Twitter made sure to mock the protests
Happy #DayWithoutImmigrants! The day where leftists and legal immigrants celebrate not knowing the difference between legal and illegal.
— Andrew Powell (@andrewrpowell) February 16, 2017
Well, if you got your job taken by an illegal immigrant, today's the day to go get it back. #DayWithoutImmigrants
— Matt Walsh (@MattWalshBlog) February 16, 2017
Btw, the vast majority of immigrants who came here legally OPPOSE illegals in America.
Take your day & shove it.#DayWithoutImmigrants
— Joe Walsh (@WalshFreedom) February 16, 2017
5. The protests haven’t been noticed by politicians in Washington, D.C. Maybe some of them will be inconvenienced by less options to eat, but for the most part it seems like the protests will have little effect on immigration policy, meaning that at the end of the day they’re irrelevant and only serve to make leftists feel good about themselves.
Follow Aaron Bandler on Twitter @bandlersbanter.
Source: The Daily Wire
