Today's walkout....

[Mackey Mouse]

How much impact do you think it will have where you are living.....I am not sure what will happen on Cape Cod and I have been watching the news for what is going on in Boston.......I will report back if I notice any businesses closed here as a result of workers not coming into work.

 

[Christine]

All I can say is my commute this morning was HEAVENLY!!

Every day I take this one route to work that is about 5 miles long. It is a fairly major road that goes right through "Little El Salvador." It is jammed packed with traffic plus we have all the day labor sites on that road.

This morning I get on it and I felt like I was all alone. I breezed up the road and got to work 20 minutes earlier.

As far as I am concerned, they can stay home everyday. (sorry, I said that for my own selfish reasons )

Now, that I am at work, I don't notice much difference. We have a ton of construction going on. Whether these workers are legal or not, I don't know. But they all seemed to show up for work today.

 

[bananiem]

I don't think it will be a big deal here. The Seneca corn plant might not have very many workers today, but I think the legal immigrants we have here for professional jobs will work. (Mayo Clinic and IBM)

 

[kdibattista]

I think it's going to be a flop.

 

[Aidensmom]

My commute was just as bad as usual, if that is any indication.

There is supposed to be a rally near where I work at noon...we'll see how that goes.

 

[Evil Queen]

I'm sure it may make some difference down here, with all the field work and construction, but probably won't know until later.

Many organizers down here asked for the rallies yesterday, so no one would be at risk of losing their jobs. But after reading a few articles, a few folks were saying they were going today, even if it meant losing their jobs.

 

[kelleigh1]

There is supposed to be a rally here in Boston today, although not really near my office.

I agree with Kim though, and think it's going to be a flop.

There are a few things I don't understand:
~ On the news last night, they talked to a few people who are planning to protest. They were all saying how much they want to live in America, so my first question is: why don't they go about gaining citizenship legally?
~ Many of the people they showed own their own businesses. How is this possible?
~ There was another report I heard yesterday about how illegals can't get a driver's license, yet they own cars and those cars are registered. Why is this being allowed to happen?

I'm not against people who want a better life, but with the state of the world today and the number of people who hate to U.S., we can't just allow anyone to walk across our borders and take up residence.

 

[MosMom]

Nope, I don't think it will be a big deal here. The whole plan may backfire and we may realize commerce really doesn't need them all that much. Whoops!

 

[pirateofthecarolinas]

My DD9 attends a Spanish Immersion school but all of her teachers are here legally on working VISAs.

I guess no one here will be getting their lawn mowed today. Most of the hispanics I see work for landscaping crews and construction jobs.

 

[pearlieq]

There's supposed to be more in Chicago, but we live right outside of Aurora, which is a pretty big immigrant center in the suburbs.

I wish the protesters all the best. I don't think our system is perfect, but I know I'm ashamed of how our official policies treat immigrants and I'm even more ashamed of the ingorant, xenophobic vitrol being spewed by some of our "fine citizens".

 

[Kirby]

I don't know how it will be affected here. I'm hearing on the radio that a couple of companies are closed - Tyson, Whole Foods, a tire shop - to name a few. Some companies are giving their people time off with pay. Others that are unionized are telling their employees that they have to come in or be fired.

My husband is a plumbing contractor and he says that concrete is getting poured today so no "stay at homes" there. He also said that INS is hitting the construction business pretty hard at the moment. He doesn't have any illegal employees but expects them to come by the shop soon.

 

[SC Minnie]

They are having a rally/protest in Charlotte at 6 tonight. They asked students and workers to attend this tally instead of walking out of class or missing work and worried about losing a job.

In this particular area I don't think a work stoppage will be a big deal. In other areas of NC maybe but not around here.

kelleigh1-- I agree 100%

 

[Miss Jasmine]

There won't be much of an affect around here. There are mostly high-tech, defense contract companies in our area. There is a protest scheduled down near our county's government center, but I'm not sure how many people will actually up. I was thinking of saying I was going to just cause trouble at work.

 

[jodifla]

My son's school was almost empty today....

 

[jodifla]

There is supposed to be a rally here in Boston today, although not really near my office.

I agree with Kim though, and think it's going to be a flop.

There are a few things I don't understand:
~ On the news last night, they talked to a few people who are planning to protest. They were all saying how much they want to live in America, so my first question is: why don't they go about gaining citizenship legally?
~ Many of the people they showed own their own businesses. How is this possible?
~ There was another report I heard yesterday about how illegals can't get a driver's license, yet they own cars and those cars are registered. Why is this being allowed to happen?

I'm not against people who want a better life, but with the state of the world today and the number of people who hate to U.S., we can't just allow anyone to walk across our borders and take up residence.

There is no way for most of them to come here legally. We don't have any system set up for that. That's why the come illegally.

Our immigration system is broken, we and the government have ignored it for years, and now it's coming back to bite us. If we passed sensible reform, we wouldn't have this mess.

 

[Virgo10]

I just came back from shopping. Nothing going on in my little town. I suspect things may be different in Lakeland and Tampa though.

I hope it's a flop although rallies tend to attract the younger people so I think you'll see quite a few at the various ones.

 

[texasthree]

I am in south texas, almost mexico and I have noticed no difference. The house behind me is full of construction workers and from what I understand they are mostly from Mexico on 2 week work visas. My friends sons school in san antonio is pretty much closed down. A teacher told him on thursday that if he came to school on monday he would be a racist. My friend marched right back over to the school thursday evening but the principal was gone and they were closed on friday for fiesta.

 

[momof2inPA]

There will be zero effect here, maybe a few hundred protestors in downtown Pittsburgh. No big deal.

I think the INS should be knocking down the doors of those big meat packing plants that shut down today to review their employees' documentation. If the workers are legal citizens, there is nothing to fear, so they shouldn't have a problems with it, right? I'm sure Tyson foods is a big campaign contributor, so that would never happen.

There was a warehousing company that was raided nationwide a couple of weeks ago; you might have seen the story on CNN. I know a manager at one site who was a little bummed at first because he lost all his Mexicans, but a temp agency showed up the next day with a bunch of new Mexicans to fill the empty spots. Apparently, it was just a little show by the government with no real consequences.

 

[AuntieM03]

I live in Los Angeles county, but luckily not in the city. I have a feeling traffic is going to be ugly there. I am hoping when I go to Walmart later there will be lighter crowds.

 

[mickeyboat]

No effect where I live whatsoever.

I think there are some rallies planned in Nashua and Manchester, NH. The people on the news last night who were talking about the rallies were not Mexicans, but other immigrants complaining about how long it takes to get citizenship.

Denae