Latest news with #DayWithoutImmigrants
Yahoo
02-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Coloradans protest Trump again on a ‘day without immigrants'
Yoselin Corrales of Aurora Unidos CSO addresses the crowd at a "Day Without Immigrants" rally at the Colorado Capitol on Thursday. (Chase Woodruff/Colorado Newsline) An international workers holiday and a 'day without immigrants' were the latest occasions for Coloradans to gather in protest of President Donald Trump's agenda. A crowd of hundreds sprawled across the lawn of the Colorado Capitol in Denver on Thursday and rallied and marched through downtown Denver in a May Day protest organized by left-wing groups. They returned for an immigration-focused event on the Capitol steps. 'May Day is a historic day, not just for us, but for workers all around the world,' said Yoselin Corrales of Aurora Unidos CSO, the grassroots group that helped organize the rally. 'We must take the lessons from our history and keep the fight alive. In our country today, workers rights and immigrants are actively being attacked from all directions.' SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX The city of Aurora found itself in the national spotlight last year when Trump, campaigning on a platform of mass deportations and harsh new border restrictions, claimed the expansive suburb of 400,000 had been 'invaded and conquered' by the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua. Early in his second term, Trump's claims about the gang have fueled one of the most controversial elements of his agenda: The invocation of the centuries-old Alien Enemies Act to deport 137 detainees to a brutal maximum-security prison in El Salvador in March. About 90% of those 137 deportees had no criminal record, and at least one, Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, was removed as a result of an 'administrative error.' Advocates, attorneys and family members for other deportees say that they were falsely identified as TdA members because of tattoos honoring family members or their favorite soccer team. The administration has moved to designate hundreds of other detainees for similar removals, but a variety of federal courts have halted the practice citing due process concerns and the inapplicability of the Alien Enemies Act in peacetime. Trump has openly floated plans to send American citizens to the prison, known as the Terrorism Confinement Center, or CECOT, next. A series of highly publicized raids in Denver and Aurora in February by Immigration and Customs Enforcement failed to turn up a large TdA presence in the area, with agency officials telling Fox News that they had detained just one suspected gang member out of the hundred they had targeted. Instead, federal law enforcement agents have touted busts of at least two underground nightclubs, where they said they detained dozens of people in the country unlawfully. ICE agents also detained Jeanette Vizguerra, a prominent local immigration rights activist, in a March arrest that Vizguerra's lawyers allege was an act of retaliation for her speech. Corrales urged the crowd at the Capitol to stand up for Vizguerra and other 'working women who are detained at the horrific ICE concentration camp in Aurora for the simple crime of crossing borders while poor.' ICE operates an immigration detention center in Aurora. Citing the additional burdens and barriers faced by immigrants in the workforce, including employers' use of the threat of ICE enforcement to coerce immigrants into unfair working conditions, she said the fight for immigrants' rights and workers' rights are part of an interconnected struggle. 'We are here today because we are here to fight, not on one front, or even two or three fronts,' Corrales said. 'We're going to stand with workers on every front.' Ramon Zuniga, secretary-treasurer of United Food and Commercial Workers Local 7 and the son of Mexican immigrants, echoed that message. 'Immigrant rights are workers' rights, and unions will lead the charge to fight back and stand up in solidarity with our immigrant brothers and sisters,' Zuniga said. 'We must take to the streets, and to the Capitol and courtrooms, and to the ballot box, and together, we will prevail.' The protest follows several other recent Trump-agenda protests at the Capitol, the latest on April 19. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Yahoo
30-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Metro Detroit's best restaurants of 2025 are led by immigrants and cultural foodways
Imagine what your favorite restaurant might look like without immigrant workers. If the snap of your fingers vanished each foreign-born employee, what would you see? An eerily empty kitchen. Water left running by the dishwasher who spontaneously left his post. A shattered bottle dropped from the hands of the sommelier who disappeared while pouring your glass of Chardonnay and reservation pages flipped from the breeze that swept away the maître d'. Without the immigrant restaurant operators who share their culture with us through the language of food, we might have to travel thousands of miles for a taste of Filipino breads. We'd be without the first-generation Haitian Americans bringing heat to dishes with pikliz, a spicy pickled slaw. Some will not have to use their imagination to envision the impact the loss of immigrants would have on the restaurant industry, because on Feb. 3, roughly 100 businesses across southeast Michigan participated in a Day Without Immigrants. Dozens of restaurants closed their doors and immigrant workers took the day off in protest of the federal government's hardline stance on immigration. It was the second protest of its kind, following a Day Without Immigrants in 2017 during President Donald Trump's first term. The impact of losing immigrant culinarians is immense. What we gain from them is paramount to the depth of our food system. Metro Detroiters are proud to be a part of a melting pot of cultures and flavors. There's a delight in our proximity to Canada and its exports like poutine. Our palates have been refined by the Levantine flavors of Dearborn and Yemeni and Bangladeshi staples in Hamtramck. We've become fluent in the language of tacos from lessons in Mexicantown, and can distinguish the intricacies of noodle varieties across Asian traditions. And then there's the coney. The very dish that represents Detroit on a national stage was brought to the city by a Greek immigrant. The restaurants that have shone a spotlight on Detroit and contributed to the city's reputation for a flourishing food scene are largely operated by immigrant chef-owners. In 2003, the Japanese chef Takashi Yagihashi was the first metro Detroiter to take home a James Beard Foundation Award in nearly 20 years. Algerian pastry chef Warda Bouguettaya would be the next, almost 20 years later, followed by Japanese chef Hajime Sato of Sozai in 2024. Our own programs, the Detroit Free Press/Metro Detroit Chevy Dealers Restaurant of the Year and Top 10 New Restaurants and Dining Experiences list, are consistently topped with immigrant-led establishments and restaurants inspired by ethnic cuisines. In 2022, Baobab Fare took the No.1 spot. The East African restaurant is run by Hamissi Mamba and Nadia Nijimbere, the husband-and-wife duo who fled Burundi and sought asylum in Detroit. Last year, Noori Pocha, the Korean gastropub slinging Korean fried chicken in Clawson came in at No. 2 and Alpino, with its dairy-forward menu inspired by The Alps, was named Restaurant of the Year., My friend and predecessor as Free Press restaurant critic Mark Kurlyandchik wrote about the immigrant community's significance to metro Detroit's food industry in 2020. 'So many of us were immigrants at some point along the way — and it's our beautiful cultural tapestry that makes America great,' he wrote. 'Let's celebrate it.' Five years later, we're still celebrating. Tomorrow, March 31, we will begin unveiling the 2025 Top 10 New Restaurants and Dining Experiences, culminating with the Restaurant of the Year on Wednesday, April 2. Of the 12 establishments being recognized, at least half are led by culinary artists who come from immigrant families. They cook with passion and generosity, each dish an act of hospitality for diners to fall in love, not only with their food, but their heritage. Additionally, what makes our food scene so bountiful is its diversity. It's the camaraderie between the Latin American restaurant and the Southeast Asian farmer growing its cabbage, the Caribbean restaurant and the retro diner that bring varying options to a single neighborhood. While diversity, equity and inclusion efforts are also subject to the White House's chainsaw, our list honors diversity in leadership, format, price point and cuisine. The 2025 class of honorees is largely comprised of minority-operated food businesses. They're run by women, LGBTQ+ food professionals and Black and brown cooks. The list is a reflection of metro Detroit's wonderfully diverse food scene and the country's food scene at large. It represents what's always made America great. Stay tuned for the reveal of this year's Top 10 starting Monday, March 31. For a chance to win five $100 gift cards to dine at restaurants on the 2025 Detroit Free Press/Metro Detroit Chevy Dealers Top 10 New Restaurants & Dining Experiences list, visit Subscribe to the Eat Drink Freep newsletter for extras and insider scoops on Detroit-area dining. This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Best restaurants of 2025 are led by immigrants and cultural foodways
Chicago Tribune
03-03-2025
- Politics
- Chicago Tribune
Annie Abbott: Multilingualism not a threat. It belongs in our country.
When Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde spoke to President Donald Trump and the congregation on the day after his inauguration, she asked him 'to have mercy upon the people in our country who are scared now.' For many of those people, that fear is pronounced miedo, and speaking Spanish (or any language other than English) is now part of what makes them feel like targets. The recent 'Day Without Immigrants,' launched as protests in Chicago and cities across the country, was the national response to attacks on Spanish-speaking immigrants especially. Now reports indicate Trump will sign an executive order declaring English the official language of the U.S. and rescinding requirements that programs that receive federal funds provide language assistance for non-English speakers. In the current fearmongering against immigrants, language is used as a proxy for who belongs in the United States — or who does not. This misunderstanding of the vital role of multilingualism in our communities, our economy and our government helps drive the anti-immigrant attitude and actions that will only weaken our country. One week after Trump took office for the second time, the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) spoke to this language connection in a message to its members: 'In light of the recent wave of Executive Orders issued by the new Trump administration, it is more important than ever to reaffirm the critical role that world language educators serve in our multilingual communities, here and abroad. … As the world becomes more interdependent, the demand for multilingual and culturally competent individuals will only grow.' As a language educator with more than 30 years experience teaching Spanish at the university level, I know, and research shows, that embracing all languages enriches schools, communities and businesses. Yet deeply ingrained in U.S. culture is the problematic notion that being a monolingual English speaker should be the norm. Indeed, an overwhelming majority of people (78.3%) in the U.S. speak English only, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. However, a majority of those who speak languages other than English are bilingual and speak English 'very well.' And a full 17% of immigrants in the U.S. speak English only. Clearly, English is in no danger in this country from the presence of people who also speak many other languages. A recent international survey of more than 20 countries, conducted by the Pew Research Center, asked what makes a person truly belong to a country. The top response (91%) was 'being able to speak their country's most common language.' The response of participants from the U.S. was lower (78%) but still high. Trump — who is monolingual — has espoused throughout his career that speaking English equals belonging. In a 2015 Republican presidential primary debate, he said, 'This is a country where we speak English, not Spanish.' Nine years later, at a 2024 rally in Phoenix, he went further, claiming that non-English-speaking immigrants push out those who truly belong: 'There are a lot of languages that we don't have here. … And they're sitting down in a school, taking a student's place that might be a hardworking good citizen, the child of citizens. And they're taking their place.' That is not how public schools work, obviously; one student's presence does not shove out another. School is precisely where immigrant youths need to be to learn English. In the fall of 2021, 10.6% of public school students in the United States were English learners, equaling 5.3 million students. The deeper implication resonating from this administration is clear: If you do not speak English, even if you are learning it, you cannot be a 'good citizen.' You do not belong. It is not surprising, then, that the Spanish version of the White House's website and social media accounts disappeared the day Trump took office. Even if it is true that a Spanish version is in the works, that stands in stark contrast to the preparedness with which this administration launched its priorities in the first hours and days with a spray of prewritten executive orders and policy plans. The bigger problem is that these beliefs about languages translate into action. Research shows that negative attitudes about the way people speak English, let alone another language, results in bias and discrimination, '(exacerbating) existing prejudices towards minority communities.' Studies have found discriminatory hiring practices against job candidates with 'nonstandard' accents and bias in artificial intelligence against nonnative English writers. Even worse, this conflation of language and belonging is tied to deportation efforts. This is not new. During Trump's first presidency, a Manhattan lawyer was recorded threatening to call Immigration and Customs Enforcement on workers who spoke Spanish, and two women in Montana were detained by a Border Patrol agent for speaking Spanish. The official mechanisms for raids, detention and deportation have recently ramped up even more. At the top of the ICE website, in red, a button encourages people to 'Report Crime' and provides a phone number for reporting 'suspicious activity.' The problem is that speaking Spanish has so thoroughly been cast as a 'suspicious activity' that fears swirl around claims that U.S. citizens are detained for speaking it in public. To be sure, speaking English in the U.S. benefits immigrants. That is why around 900,000 adults in the U.S. are enrolled in English classes. But if learning a language were quick and easy, far fewer Americans would be monolingual themselves. On the first day of this new semester at my university, and the second day of Trump's administration, a student emailed me to say she would miss class while she and her family huddled in Chicago where a massive federal deportation operation was announced. That same day, a former student reached out to me and wrote that 'speaking Spanish is a core part of my career as a humanitarian immigration attorney in Chicago — where 90% of my clients speak exclusively Spanish.' Speaking Spanish and other languages in the U.S. must be a point of orgullo — pride — not a cause of terror. Annie Abbott is an associate teaching professor of Spanish at the University of Illinois and a public voices fellow of The OpEd Project.
Yahoo
26-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Migrant kids reportedly pulled from Massachusetts schools over deportation fears
Thousands of parents in Massachusetts are allegedly keeping their kids home from school out of fear of ICE raids and deportation since President Donald Trump's inauguration. The Boston Globe reported on Tuesday that these migrant parents have become fearful after seeing ICE raids throughout the state. "Amid the Trump administration's promises of mass deportations, some schools in Massachusetts and nationwide in recent weeks saw an uptick in absences among migrant students," the article read. One mother in Lynn, Massachusetts, named Esperanza said she has kept her daughter home at least once during the past month as a result. Boston Authorities Rejected All 15 Immigration Detainer Requests Ice Made In 2024, New Report Says "There's a fear there, as if someone were chasing us," Esperanza told the paper. Read On The Fox News App Her 9-year-old daughter felt the same way. "I think that they're going to deport us," the girl told The Globe in Spanish. "It scares me." The article reported that school administrators have claimed that thousands of kids across multiple school districts have stayed home over rumors of ICE agents in the area, though no school raids have been reported. Framingham Superintendent Robert Tremblay claimed that a quarter of students in his district stayed home one day over ICE rumors. "It's really important for families to understand that the safest place for their child is in school," Tremblay said. One legal immigrant, a mother named Monsy, added that "no one feels safe," and said her own kids stayed home from school one day out of fear of deportation. "I see the sadness, the fear, in the children. Sometimes they're crying," Monsy said. After claiming that district data showed that "[a]bsences appeared to spike in late January and early February," the report added that higher absence rates could also be attributed to "weather, illness, and other typical causes of seasonal fluctuation," with attendance having "largely returned to normal in some districts." Ice Raids Are The 'New Chapter In The War On Terror,' Msnbc Guest Alleges Data presented within the report showed only a three to five percent decrease in school attendance in Lowell, Worchester and Lawrence, districts with high migrant populations, since November. The Globe reported that absences in the city of Chelsea ticked up more than normal the day after the inauguration and when ICE was spotted at a local grocery, but absences were even higher for a "Day Without Immigrants" protest and a day there was snow. Chelsea Public Schools Communications Director Michael Sullivan confirmed the numbers listed in the article, telling Fox News Digital that their schools "have actually seen our attendance rates remain at our average for the most part." In a comment to Fox News Digital, Tremblay provided resources that his schools have given to parents worried about ICE raids but also admitted it's unclear if absences can be attributed to deportation fears or sickness. "With absences at this time of year due to sickness, it is difficult to discern what absences may be related to sickness vs. fear of deportation or other reasons," Tremblay said. Salem Public Schools Communications Director Chris O'Donnel also added they do not have exact figures on absenteeism caused by fears of deportation. Fox News Digital reached out to various other Massachusetts school districts and superintendents referenced in the article source: Migrant kids reportedly pulled from Massachusetts schools over deportation fears
Fox News
26-02-2025
- Politics
- Fox News
Migrant kids reportedly pulled from Massachusetts schools over deportation fears
Thousands of parents in Massachusetts are allegedly keeping their kids home from school out of fear of ICE raids and deportation since President Donald Trump's inauguration. The Boston Globe reported on Tuesday that these migrant parents have become fearful after seeing ICE raids throughout the state. "Amid the Trump administration's promises of mass deportations, some schools in Massachusetts and nationwide in recent weeks saw an uptick in absences among migrant students," the article read. One mother in Lynn, Massachusetts, named Esperanza said she has kept her daughter home at least once during the past month as a result. "There's a fear there, as if someone were chasing us," Esperanza told the paper. Her 9-year-old daughter felt the same way. "I think that they're going to deport us," the girl told The Globe in Spanish. "It scares me." The article reported that school administrators have claimed that thousands of kids across multiple school districts have stayed home over rumors of ICE agents in the area, though no school raids have been reported. Framingham Superintendent Robert Tremblay claimed that a quarter of students in his district stayed home one day over ICE rumors. "It's really important for families to understand that the safest place for their child is in school," Tremblay said. One legal immigrant, a mother named Monsy, added that "no one feels safe," and said her own kids stayed home from school one day out of fear of deportation. "I see the sadness, the fear, in the children. Sometimes they're crying," Monsy said. After claiming that district data showed that "[a]bsences appeared to spike in late January and early February," the report added that higher absence rates could also be attributed to "weather, illness, and other typical causes of seasonal fluctuation," with attendance having "largely returned to normal in some districts." Data presented within the report showed only a three to five percent decrease in school attendance in Lowell, Worchester and Lawrence, districts with high migrant populations, since November. The Globe reported that absences in the city of Chelsea ticked up more than normal the day after the inauguration and when ICE was spotted at a local grocery, but absences were even higher for a "Day Without Immigrants" protest and a day there was snow. Chelsea Public Schools Communications Director Michael Sullivan confirmed the numbers listed in the article, telling Fox News Digital that their schools "have actually seen our attendance rates remain at our average for the most part." In a comment to Fox News Digital, Tremblay provided resources that his schools have given to parents worried about ICE raids but also admitted it's unclear if absences can be attributed to deportation fears or sickness. "With absences at this time of year due to sickness, it is difficult to discern what absences may be related to sickness vs. fear of deportation or other reasons," Tremblay said. Salem Public Schools Communications Director Chris O'Donnel also added they do not have exact figures on absenteeism caused by fears of deportation. Fox News Digital reached out to various other Massachusetts school districts and superintendents referenced in the article.
