US May Day action backs migrants
Rallies to call attention to Trump’s immigration policies
Labor unions and immigrant advocacy groups are set to lead May Day rallies in cities across the US on Monday, with organizers expecting larger- thanusual turnouts to protest the immigration policies of President Donald Trump.
The demonstrations could be the largest by immigrants since Trump’s inauguration on January 20, activists say, and some immigrant- run businesses plan to shut down for some or all of the day to protest the administration’s crackdown on immigrants living in the country illegally.
“To me, it’s offensive the policies this president is trying to implement,” said Jaime Contreras, vice president of the Service Employees International Union’s 32BJ affiliate, which represents cleaners and other property service workers in 11 states. “It’s a nation of immigrants, and separating immigrant families because of their immigration status, it goes against what we love about this wonderful country.”
May Day, or International Workers’ Day, is typically a quieter affair in the US than in Europe, where it is a public holiday in many countries.
In New York City, immi- grant- run convenience stores and taxi services in upper Manhattan will close during the morning rush hour between 7 am and 10 am, in a protest reminiscent of those staged on “A Day Without Immigrants.”
At lunchtime, fast- food workers will join elected officials at a rally outside a McDonald’s restaurant in midtown Manhattan, calling for more predictable work schedules.
In the evening, organizers expect thousands of demonstrators at a rally in Manhattan’s Foley Square for musical performances and speeches by union leaders and immigrants living in the country illegally.
In Los Angeles, organizers expect tens of thousands of people to gather in the morning at MacArthur Park before marching downtown to a rally before City Hall.
Heightened precautions were also in place in Seattle, where officials were on the lookout for incendiary devices and gun- carrying protesters after a January shooting outside a political event and an incident during May Day 2016 when a protester threw an unlit Molotov cocktail at police.