Rally to emphasize ‘a day without immigrants’
What would happen if Houston had no immigrants?
Organizers will try to give people a glimpse of that world Thursday with a civic demonstration called “A Day Without Immigrants.”
The plan, part of a national movement, is for immigrants not to go to work and not to buy or sell any products or services that day.
Instead, immigrants are expected to demonstrate at a rally at 6 p.m. in Guadalupe Plaza.
One out of every 3.5 people in Houston is foreign-born, versus 1 in 8 nationwide.
For Harris County, one in every 3.9 are foreign-born, according to the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey. That amounts to about 1.6 million people.
“This idea came from an organic movement that started online to show what it would mean to have a day without immigrants in this country and in our city,” said César Espinosa, the leader of FIEL Houston, an organization of immigrant families.
FIEL is helping to organize the movement by “creating a space for people to express their frustrations and needs,” Espinosa said.
Many families in Houston are feeling afraid and anxious since President Donald Trump signed immigration executive orders in January, he said.
In addition to the controversial order that imposed a travel
ban for nationals of seven Muslim countries, Trump signed an order that would retire federal funds from “sanctuary cities.”
The Texas House also is considering a sanctuary bill, SB4, which would have the same effect for state municipalities and local governments.
“Sanctuary cities” is not a legal definition, but the term is associated with jurisdictions where local law enforcement agencies don’t cooperate with immigration authorities to apprehend undocumented immigrants.
Houston is in some lists of sanctuary cities and not in others. The Center for Immigration Studies, a right wing research organization, doesn’t have it on its list.
“We want to create awareness about the role immigrants play in our society,” said community organizer Alain Cisneros.
Xóchitl Ramírez, an immigrant worker from Mexico, is planning to participate .
“I normally don’t work on Thursdays, but my husband is not going to work,” she said. “We are not going to buy anything, not even on the internet; and we are not leaving the house for anything until the rally.”
Ramírez wants “not only to send a message to (President) Trump but to everybody that we immigrants have come here to contribute and not to sack this country,” she said.
John Cisneros, an education consultant and a five-generation American, is going to go to the rally to show support.
“I don’t come from immigrant stock,” he said, ”but my life has been enriched by those who have come to the United States in hopes of a better future.”
Cisneros, who has lived in California and Texas, considers many immigrants he knows “stalwart contributors to the community, in many instances filling the jobs that others would prefer not to hold,” he said.
“As a scholar, I have been taught by, studied with, and worked alongside immigrants whose intellectual capacity has surpassed my own and whose knowledge and experience have added to the many facets of work that has brought our country to its current level of productivity.”
Not all immigrants are sympathetic to the demonstration.
“You are not looking at a day without Latinos or Mexicans,” said Marri Velazquez, one of the leaders of the Latino Trump Coalition, because not all of them are immigrants.
“I have heard some business owners saying that if they are not going to work, the employers are going to put a sign that day saying that they are open for hire,” Velázquez said.
In spite of the demonstrations, she said, “at the end of the day what will prevail is the law of the land that they violated.”
Cisneros could not estimate the size of Thursday’s rally.
“Everything has happened so fast with this president that what we are seeing is that they are in shock and in denial, only now beginning to organize.”