Thousands stay home from work, school for A Day Without Immigrants protests


Across the United States on Thursday, thousands of immigrants skipped work and class to participate in A Day Without Immigrants.
Activists say the purpose of the walkout was to show how important immigrants are to American society; census data says that more than 40 million people in the U.S., or about 13 percent of the population, are foreign born. Restaurants, shops, and other small businesses were closed in major cities like Minneapolis, Boston, and D.C., where more than 50 restaurants were shuttered for the day. A Defense Department spokesman told Reuters that at the Pentagon, a Starbucks, a Taco Bell, a Burger King, and other fast food restaurants were closed because employees were out protesting.
There were also demonstrations in Chicago, Detroit, Kansas City, Los Angeles, and other cities, with many participants lambasting President Trump's immigration policies. "Most people who come to America are just working," Fernando Garcia, the U.S.-born owner of a Chicago-area solar fan business, told Reuters. He closed his business down in support of the protests, and said the government "can deport the criminals, but that's a very small portion of people who come here."
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
-
5 museum-grade cartoons about Trump's Smithsonian purge
Cartoons Artists take on institutional rebranding, exhibit interpretation, and more
-
Settling the West Bank: a death knell for a Palestine state?
In the Spotlight The reality on the ground is that the annexation of the West Bank is all but a done deal
-
Sudoku medium: August 23, 2025
The Week's daily medium sudoku puzzle
-
New York court tosses Trump's $500M fraud fine
Speed Read A divided appeals court threw out a hefty penalty against President Trump for fraudulently inflating his wealth
-
Trump said to seek government stake in Intel
Speed Read The president and Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan reportedly discussed the proposal at a recent meeting
-
US to take 15% cut of AI chip sales to China
Speed Read Nvidia and AMD will pay the Trump administration 15% of their revenue from selling artificial intelligence chips to China
-
NFL gets ESPN stake in deal with Disney
Speed Read The deal gives the NFL a 10% stake in Disney's ESPN sports empire and gives ESPN ownership of NFL Network
-
Samsung to make Tesla chips in $16.5B deal
Speed Read Tesla has signed a deal to get its next-generation chips from Samsung
-
FCC greenlights $8B Paramount-Skydance merger
Speed Read The Federal Communications Commission will allow Paramount to merge with the Hollywood studio Skydance
-
Tesla reports plummeting profits
Speed Read The company may soon face more problems with the expiration of federal electric vehicle tax credits
-
Dollar faces historic slump as stocks hit new high
Speed Read While stocks have recovered post-Trump tariffs, the dollar has weakened more than 10% this year