Day Without Illegals Becomes a Political Dud

immigration
Neil Munro

The much-ballyhooed “Day Without Immigrants” turned out to be a day without many protestors or any political impact, but with many Mexican flags, angry slogans, and a muted social-media response by amnesty advocates.

The Thursday turnout in most cities was few hundred protestors, despite some employers shutting their workplaces. But organizers did get a turnout of several thousand people in North Carolina and Chicago. NBC described the national turnout as merely “thousands,” despite an estimated population of roughly 11 million illegals.

In recognition of the low numbers, the response from pro-mass immigration politicians and activists was muted. Douglas Rivlin, Director of Communication for Democratic Illinois Rep. Luis Gutierrez, tweeted nothing about the marches. Neither did the National Immigration Forum. Linda Sarsour, Muslim organizer of the Women’s March, simply tweeted “solidarity.”

Although the event was a political dud, the organizers will likely use it as a basis for larger, future protests.

The organizers claimed they represent roughly 31 million immigrants and roughly 11 million illegal aliens. If the organizers turned out 30,000 protestors, that represented 0.27 percent of the illegal population, and 0.097 percent of the immigrant population, most of which was at work in in school during the scattered protests. Even though employers shut their workplaces, many of the missing illegals were likely hard at work in their low-wage second or third jobs.

While there are panoramic photos of the two largest demonstrations in Chicago and Charlotte, N.C., photographs from the small demonstrations tend to be ground level and also close up. which allows the photographers to hide the small scale of a group from viewers.

Just 250 people, at most, turned out in Reading, Pennsylvania.

Long Island also has a large immigrant population, and a major problem with MS-13 gangs, but the demonstration was very small.

A small turnout in Minnesota, whose population includes tens of thousands of Somalis.

The growing foreign-born population in Tennesee provided a small contingent. 

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The turnout in Texas was very small, in a state with a huge population of immigrants and illegal aliens. 

There was a medium-sized turnout in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Here are two images of the Washington event.

Day Without Immigrants Washington Supporters of immigrants' rights march downtown Washington during an immigration protest Thursday, Feb. 16, 2017, in Washington.Immigrants around the U.S. stayed home from work and school Thursday to demonstrate how important they are to America's economy and its way of life, and many businesses closed in solidarity, in a nationwide protest called A Day Without Immigrants. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

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The biggest turnouts were in Chicago and Charlotte, where city officials estimated the turnout at 8,000.

Some demonstrators waved the flag of their home countries, underlining their identity as foreigners from countries whose primary exports include cheap labor for U.S. employers.

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In Chicago, one set of protestors listened to Spanish-language speeches under the flags of Mexican, Ecuadorean, and El Salvador.

Pro-American immigration reformers noted the failure of the protests.

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