Thousands in NCW Strike, Stay Home In Solidarity During 'Day Without An Immigrant' Protest

Fruit packing warehouses, retail businesses and public schools were all affected by folks participating in the national strike to protest Trump administration immigration policies

An apple packing line at Auvil Fruit Company in Orondo, Wa. Auvil closed on Monday because of the strike.

Thousands of people stayed home from work and school across North Central Washington on Monday in solidarity with the Day Without An Immigrants nationwide protest against the Trump administration’s immigration policies.

Fruit packing lines at Auvil Fruit Company in Orondo went silent because of the strike, Human Resources Director Alfredo Ortiz said.

“We shut down today,” he said. “We told our employees to do what they needed to do.”

Workers at Chelan Fruit in Lake Chelan reported that most of their production staff members stayed home as well. Briana Shales, Marketing Director for Stemilt Growers in Wenatchee told the Wenatchee World they heard about the strike last week and adjusted to run limited operations today.

Plaza Wenatchee, a Mexican restaurant and grocery store in Wenatchee announced they’d be closed for the day and explained why on Facebook.

“Today, we made the decision to close our store in support of raising awareness for the new immigration laws. We want to stand in solidarity with our community and emphasize the importance of treating everyone with love and compassion,” they wrote. “We believe in spreading positivity and unity through our delicious food. We appreciate your unwavering support throughout the years, and rest assured, we will continue to serve authentic and flavorful dishes that bring people together. Thank you for being a part of our journey, and let's continue to spread love and understanding in these challenging times. Together, we can make a difference.”

Aztec Burgers & More and La Mexicana Super Market in Wenatchee also closed for the day.

The strike also affected local school districts.

Spencer Taylor, interim superintendent of the Eastmont School District, said that about 33% students across the district were absent and that number went as high as 43% at Eastmont High School.

“We’re assuming that many were absent because of the solidarity day,” he said.

Wenatchee School District Communications Direction Diana Haglund wrote in an email that Wenatchee schools saw “a significant drop in attendance.”

Half the students of Orchard Middle School and Wenatchee Valley Technical Skills Center were gone, and Mission View Elementary and Lincoln Elementary both had 44% of their student body out for the day. Lewis & Clark Elementary had 42% of its students absent.

“While we do not have explicit data supporting the absence rates being due to the immigrant protest it is highly likely,” Haglund wrote.

Cashmere School District Superintendent Glenn Johnson said they had 19% student absenteeism today at Cashmere High School – double the normal amount.

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Reports of ICE Activity in Wenatchee

As workers in the region went on strike and students stayed home from school, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) detained an individual and a family in Wenatchee, according to Wenatchee for Immigrant Justice.

“You may have heard about immigration activity in Wenatchee today. We want to clarify that it was not a raid, but a specific operation in which a person and a family were detained at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) office,” they wrote on Facebook. “The individual was transported on an unmarked white bus, and the family in a pickup that reads ‘US Customs and Border Protection.’ Nine people from the Rapid Response Team were present to respond to a call to WAISN, confirm the activity, and document it.”

WAISN stands for the Washington Immigrant Solidarity Network.

I reached out to Wenatchee for Immigrant Justice for this story, and when they get back to me I will update this article with more information about the strike and the ICE activity they reported.

You can read more about how the strike affected other communities across the country via the Associated Press here.

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What is ‘A Day Without Immigrants?’

It’s an annual day of protest that was moved up by a couple of months specifically because of Trump's recent executive orders setting new parameters and quotas for ICE arrests and deportations and opposing the 14th Amendment by seeking to end birthright citizenship. If birthright citizenship is ended it will put a stop to "anchor babies" as he and others on the right call them. That term is considered by many to be a pejorative and it’s used to refer to a child born to non-citizen parents which will therefore help the parents and other family members gain legal residency or avoid deportation.

Critics say it's another step towards redefining Americans as specifically white descendants of European heritage and that the political project has been the cornerstone of nativist and racist organizations for some time.

Trump also signed the Laken Riley Act in the first days of his second term, which means that an undocumented individual does not have to be convicted of the crime in court, only accused of one, to be detained and deported. Prior to this ICE was primarily focused on convicted criminals who were in the US illegally.

You can learn more about birthright citizenship and Trump’s promise to end it via this breakdown from PBS here.

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