General Strike by immigrants and allies shuts restaurants, clogs streets

The 16th of February became the Day Without Immigrants as a nationwide general strike shuttered restaurants and other businesses that rely on immigrant labor. Here in DC the Washington Post published a long list of closed restaurants and a noontime march filled the streets.

These are the demands here in DC of the general strike and walkout:

ICE out of DC - no ICE presence and declining of all ICE detainer/notification requests;

If we lose our federal funds for being a sanctuary, the local government must make up the difference;

Immediately pass and fully fund the Language Access for Education Amendment Act of 2015 so that all limited and non-English speaking District residents can access DC resources;

Stop unchecked police violence committed against immigrants, including Black people and all people of color;

Remove undocumented mark from DC drivers' licenses; There is no discrimination against Muslims and that DC does not support the creation of a Muslim registry or specialized surveillance of these communities;

Not one unjust firing of anyone who chooses to participate in the Day Without Immigrants.

General strikes are extremely rare in the US. In all cases, general strikes are considered a major test of a regime and in this case the strike is a warning to Trump about the severe effects on white Americans of the proposed wholesale roundups and pogroms.

The last estimate for how many people Trump hopes to deport rose to 11 million people. Even green card holders and other documented immigrants are now declared targets. Just this week a "dreamer" with "legal" status brought to the US by his parents as a child was detained by ICE, a Federal judge wants answers in that case.

If Trump suceeds in his mass deportations or just in using fear to drive migrants out of the US, crops and especially fruit will rot in the fields for lack of pickers. Locally, MD's Eastern Shore seafood packing industry will simply stop and shut down. Most restaurants will close and stay closed. Grocery stores will have barren shelves but that might not matter if there is nobody to open them. Construction sites will grind to a halt, almost all of them. Hotels will shut down as lack of cleaning staff led to wholesale health code violations. Office buildings and all other commerical buildings will follow. Probably the sudden loss of 11 million workers will cause the whole economy to crash, leading to a deep Depression.