Off the Job, Onto the Streets

As hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets for the second time in a month to call for immigration reform, employers across the country got their first taste of worker absenteeism and lower sales – aftershocks of the divisive national debate that could intensify in coming months as the unresolved congressional debate over illegal immigration drags on.

Meatpacking, construction and retail -- especially in the South and Midwest -- were among industries affected by absenteeism as workers attended protests in more than 100 cities across the country. The demonstrations, and their effect on businesses, could foreshadow what may be a bigger national boycott planned for May 1.

Yet even as the mammoth street protests grow, there's no reason to think they will precipitate a quick end to the political impasse over illegal immigration. Both parties face months of political agony that will grow more painful as the November elections approach. The stalemate will linger because Congress recessed for two weeks Friday after an attempted compromise broke down. Some conservatives, irritated by the Hispanic outpouring, are suggesting that if the protests continue at the current intensity level, they may ultimately backfire on the immigration-reform movement.

National coalitions encompassing labor groups, immigrant-rights groups and faith-based organizations called several weeks ago for a "national day of action." The result was a hodgepodge of events, ranging from hunger strikes to work stoppages across the country. Several cities, like Los Angeles, organized events at the end of the workday. But in other parts of the country, events were held in the middle of the day, disrupting normal business operations.

In Arizona, more than 25,000 demonstrators rallied in Phoenix, while organizers in communities like Dodge City, Kan., asked participants to wear white in a march to the offices of Republican Sen. Pat Roberts, known for favoring stricter enforcement of immigration rules. In the first major protest on a college campus, several hundred students rallied at the University of California, Berkeley.

At a New York rally starting at 3 p.m., demonstrators filling the narrow confines of Broadway from City Hall north to the edge of SoHo heard speeches from Democratic Sens. Hillary Clinton and Charles Schumer – both strongly condemning any attempts to force undocumented immigrants to leave the country – and from a string of likeminded community and labor leaders. In the crowd were day laborers, hospital orderlies, care-givers to the elderly, pizza cooks, busboys, waiters, bartenders and the simply curious.

In many places, the events sent businesses racing to deal with the missing workers. Meatpacking plants in the Midwest and hotels and other businesses in the South were crippled by absenteeism among Hispanic workers. Major companies, like Tyson Foods Inc., sought to play down the impact of the rallies and stoppage on its operations. A spokesman said that "fewer than 10 of the more than 100 facilities" weren't operating due to the demonstrations and market conditions.

North Carolina, home to an emerging Latino population, was hard hit. A call by local immigrant groups for a retail boycott also prompted many Hispanics to stay away from work altogether. At the Omni Hotel in downtown Charlotte, a housekeeping coordinator reported that only two out of a 20-plus staff had shown up. "More than 90% of my workers are Latinas," she said. "They didn't show up."

Compare Foods Supermarkets, a supermarket chain that caters to Hispanics in North Carolina and beyond, saw a substantial slowdown in business. Cashier supervisor Mauricio Osorio said that there was “nobody compared with other Mondays.” He predicted a 30% drop in sales. German De Castro, a Colombian native with U.S. citizenship who owns Tex-Fil Inc. in Charlotte, which processes filament yarns for the knitting and weaving industry, said: "I had about 20 employees. About 15 are Latinos. They all stayed out of work today. We talked about it and I support this 100%." He said they were being paid.

About one-third of U.S. restaurant workers are estimated to be Hispanic. Bryan Elliot, a restaurant analyst in Atlanta, said that in the long term, "if events create a reduction in newly arrived workers, that could significantly raise the cost of meals to ... consumers."

David Whitlock, an immigration lawyer in Atlanta, where yesterday's demonstration was expected to draw 30,000, said he was hearing from business clients "concerned" about the prospects of continuing absenteeism. "I'm advising some companies almost completely dependent on foreign workers," Mr. Whitlock said. "They're nervous. They could be crippled." His clients, he said, range from "a 10-person Oriental-carpet shop to a 10,000-employee casino operator."

Health-care services were especially wary of losing staff without notice. "Our advice is there's not much you can do other than asking people not to leave en masse," Mr. Whitlock said. "We're telling them, apply your absentee policy. If you overreact, in our opinion, you are wide open for a discrimination charge."

This week's demonstrations represent the nightmare the Republicans who run Congress were hoping to avoid by coming up with a new and softer approach to immigration reform last week – and is one of the reasons Democrats weren't eager to move that new approach along.

The issue deeply divides Republicans between those who see easy immigration as key to keeping the economy humming and those who see the country's porous borders as a threat to national security. Those two wings reached a wary compromise last week with a Senate bill that would have given legal residency to illegal immigrants who have been here for at least two years, but at the same time would have reinforced the border.

That compromise collapsed on Friday as Republican conservatives wanted to toughen up its provisions and Democrats refused to vote with Republican supporters of the deal to cut off debate on the measure. Congress then went into recess. The result: The face of immigration reform that the Republican Congress is presenting to the country remains a House bill, passed late last year, that would make illegal immigration a felony, make it a crime to help illegal aliens and build a long fence along the U.S.-Mexican border.

It is that measure that has brought Hispanics and other ethnic groups into the streets by the thousands. The question now is whether the giant protests enhance or diminish the prospects that Congress will embrace the softer compromise. It's possible that Republican leaders, fearing the demonstrations are hurting the party's image with Hispanic voters, will return more eager to soften their party's image on the immigration question.

But it's also possible the demonstrations will provoke a backlash among those who favor a tougher crackdown on immigration. Signs of that backlash already are sprouting. Irked by illegal immigrants' bold display of their foreign flags in last week's demonstrations, the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps, a civilian group that patrols the borders for illegal immigrants, called for "Take an American Flag to Work" days. It urged its supporters to "Carry [the flag] to lunch; wear red, white and blue; fly a flag from your car antenna."