Eastside businesses, workers and students take part in ‘A Day Without Immigrants’ protest

Businesses across the Los Angeles area closed on Monday and students reportedly skipped school in support of “A Day Without Immigrants,” a nationwide protest shedding light on the crucial role immigrants play in society.

The social media-driven movement comes amid President Trump’s hardline immigration policies. It urges immigrants to keep their kids home from school, take the day off work and refrain from shopping. The boycott also took place in February 2017, in response to Trump’s anti-immigration policies following his first inauguration.

Across the Eastside, several businesses posted notices of closures on Instagram, saying they were standing in solidarity with immigrants.

La Cocina Express, Churrito Loco and Un Solo Sol are among the Eastside businesses that closed.

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“We stand in solidarity with our immigrant community, whose hard work and dedication are the backbone of our society,” Churrito Loco, which has other locations in the Inland Empire, posted on Instagram to its 146,000 followers.

An AP statistics class was sparsely attended at Roosevelt High on Monday morning.

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Joan Cordova

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Boyle Heights Beat

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At Roosevelt High School in Boyle Heights, a photo of an AP statistics classroom showed many empty desks. Lunch tables at Oscar De La Hoya Ánimo Charter High School appeared emptier than usual. At Collegiate Charter High School, students made posters in support of immigrants during lunchtime.

It is not yet clear how attendance at Los Angeles Unified School District schools was affected.

An LAUSD spokesperson said in a statement that the district “planned alternate activities on campus, and students were encouraged to participate in them.”

The district, according to the statement, “respects, encourages and supports the right of our students to advocate for causes that are important to them." The statement added that students could discuss ways to express their views on campus by speaking with school officials.

California is home to 10.6 million immigrants, which is 22% of the foreign-born population nationwide, according to the Public Policy Institute of California. More than half (55%) of California’s immigrants were naturalized U.S. citizens in 2023.

The Pew Research Center estimates that 1.8 million immigrants in California were undocumented in 2022, down from 2.8 million in 2007, the Public Policy Institute of California noted.

The number of unauthorized immigrants in the U.S. workforce grew from 7.4 million in 2019 to 8.3 million in 2022, Pew found, with California (at 7%) among the states with the highest shares.

At El Mercadito, an East L.A. marketplace known for its Mexican goods, a security guard estimated 90% of stall owners opted not to set up shop Monday morning. He said management decided to close entrances to shops on the first floor due to vendors not arriving. He likened the closures to pandemic-era shutdowns that left the hallways of the marketplace empty.

A security guard said El Mercadito's closures Monday reminded him of the atmosphere in the market during COVID-19 shutdowns in 2020.

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Andrew Lopez

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Boyle Heights Beat

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Isela Vargas, an employee of a spice and snack shop on the second floor, said she normally sees a rush of customers after they drop off their kids at school.

Monday was different.

Only two customers visited her shop before 10 a.m. Normally, she would have already helped at least 20, she said.

“They’ll come in to buy mole for their kids, spices, cinnamon for their coffee or teas, camotes or botanas,” Vargas said.

Pasadena resident Andrea Cortez drove to East L.A. on Monday morning to buy a few items for her and her family on her day off.

The 29-year-old noticed the marketplace was unusually empty.

“There’s not a lot of people out on the streets right now, Pasadena is mainly a white area, and you don’t see a lot of Hispanics walking around in general, I think,” Cortez said of her neighborhood. “But here, I expected to see more people.”