This is a sample of what the Day Without Immigrants protest looks like in my Chicago neighborhood. The quest to buy a simple lunch during a work break quickly became an exercise in futility. The new place near our house that sells pupusas that I’d been curious about? Closed. The usual Mexican place I was thinking about hitting up for tacos. Closed. The Mexican market and its lunch counter? Closed. The diner? Closed. The Ecuadorian place? Closed. The produce market I was going to purchase tonight’s dinner ingredients from? Closed. And on and on. I had to resort to buying a bean and cheese burrito from 7-11 (full disclosure - I’m not above doing something like this on other days). I decided to walk off my terrible American meal by surveying the neighborhood and found numerous businesses shuttered, some with signs and many without.
Additionally, all this week a team of Polish roofers has been working on our house. They are an amazing, hard-working and reliable bunch. They start on time, they end on time, and they are clearly ahead of schedule on their job. This morning the foreman called about an hour after they normally start and told me they have a big job they need to complete at another site and will be back tomorrow to finish up. I believe he used the word “emergency.” I didn’t question this because it’s true. Forcing a massive change in this country is a big job. It is an emergency. You want a country without immigrants, documented or undocumented? Enjoy your shitty 7-11 burrito.
