California pro-immigrant activists join 'A Day Without Immigrants' from Florida

California immigrant advocates and activists joined rallies Thursday for “A Day Without Immigrants” at the national level, in a boycott in rejection of an immigration law approved in Florida against undocumented immigrants, considered one of the most restrictive in the country and which, according to the protesters, uses the undocumented as a “political weapon.”

“We cannot allow this law to take effect in Florida because other states can quickly follow suit,” warned Gloria Saucedo, an activist with more than three decades of fighting for immigrant rights in California, about SB 1718 will go into effect in Florida on July 1.

Saucedo joined other activists at “A Day Without Immigrants,” raising their voices and seeking support from voters and businesses to start a boycott of Florida and Governor Ron DeSantis , promoter of the measure and who aspires to become the Republican candidate for the Presidency in the 2024 elections.

“This is a mere political weapon to win the support of the most conservative. Just like Donald Trump, he is using the undocumented as a political weapon to win supporters”, deepened the activist Saucedo, who participated in the protests held in San Diego, in southern California.

The call for a boycott was also made in other large cities in the country with large immigrant populations such as Chicago (Illinois), Houston (Texas) and Los Angeles, California.

“We are going out again to the streets”, said Maru Galvan, member of the Coalition for the Human Rights of Immigrants (CHIRLA), one of the organizations convened today in the iconic Placita Olvera, in Los Angeles, for a rally organized by Mobilize 4 Immigrants.

The protesters recalled that California experienced a similar attack with the approval in 1994 of Proposition 187, which criminalized the undocumented and which, although it never came into force, changed the political color of the state to leave it in Democratic hands.

For his part, Luis J. Vega, organizer of the Todos Somos Arizona movement, which fought against the anti-immigrant law SB1070, approved in 2010 in Arizona, stressed that the objective of the movement is not to “leave immigrants alone in Florida.”

“Our brothers in the state of Florida are not alone, for ethics and conscience we are at the national level calling for a boycott against this racist law of Governor DeSantis,” he added.

This Thursday, actions were held in other California cities such as Stockton, Santa Ana, and Fresno.

The organizers in California are preparing a trip to Florida for next July 1, the day it will enter Controversial SB 1718 is in effect, requiring businesses with more than 25 employees to use the E-Verify program to determine their immigration status and establishing fines for violators.

In addition, it forces hospitals and emergency rooms to collect data on the immigration status of patients, makes it a crime to transport undocumented immigrants to the state of Florida and provides for up to 15 years in prison, and prohibits the financing of programs from cities and counties to give identification cards to migrants, among others.

The day “A day without immigrants” scheduled a large number of protests in Florida, where protesters warned that the rule will affect vital sectors such as agriculture, construction and tourism, according to María Cárdenas, one of the organizers of a march in Immokalee, Florida's agricultural area.

“We have recommended that the community show solidarity with immigrant people, that they not go to work so that the local community sees the labor and economic impact. We know they have already closed businesses,” said Cardenas, who is a social worker.