A Day Without Immigrants: The Racial and Class Politics of Immigrant Exclusion

A Day Without Immigrants 1 May 2006 was a milestone in the struggle for worker, human, and immigrant rights, as well as US Chicano/Latino history. Over a million people, mostly Latino immigrants and their supporters, took to the streets of the US challenging anti-immigration forces. The protest was triggered by proposed legislation by James Sensenbrenner (R-Wisconsin), which would further militarize the US/Mexican border (Nevins 2001) and make undocumented persons felons. Anti-immigrant sentiment, while always a backdrop to US politics and culture, has been building since 9/11 and has reached a critical mass with the emergence of vigilante groups and draconian legislation, prompting Latina/o and immigrant communities into action. In this intervention, I summarize the anti-immigrant movement from the perspective of Los Angeles, which some consider “ground zero” of the movement, and pay particular attention to antiimmigrant sentiment among people of color, arguing that class politics are desperately needed to challenge the power of nationalism. 25 March marked the first major event of the current immigrant rights movement, with protests, marches and rallies held across the US. For many, this mobilization seemingly appeared out of nowhere.1 For weeks, however, Spanish-language DJs took the lead in Los Angeles, urging over half a million to march downtown. Building on this momentum, organizers of the “March 25 Coalition” planned a nationwide boycott for 1 May. Riffing off the mockumentary, “A Day Without a Mexican”, the organizers envisioned immigrants and their supporters boycotting work, school, and other economic activities in order to demonstrate immigrants’ contributions to the US. The leadership, however, soon splintered on the strategy, with some arguing that a boycott could undermine