Across Boulder County, some restaurants and other businesses have closed today or allowed employees to stay home in solidarity with a nationwide strike designed to emphasize the importance of immigrants, while the Boulder Valley School District reported a decrease in attendance.
The “A Day Without Immigrants” movement comes in response to President Donald Trump’s stance on immigration, including his pledges to increase deportation, construct a wall along the Mexican border and ban people from certain majority-Muslim countries from entering the country.
Even though a spokesman for Immigrations and Customs Enforcement confirmed Wednesday that — aside from “routine enforcement” — rumors of immigration raids in the Boulder area were false, some people were still electing to stay home today.
BVSD also alerted parents that there was no truth to the rumor that some school administrators were advising immigrant students to stay home.
Boulder Valley Superintendent Bruce Messinger said Thursday that absentee numbers in some schools are higher than normal. He said district officials won’t review numbers until after schools let out for the day, but said up to 10 percent of students were absent at some schools.
“I think we could comfortably say that it’s associated with students and families choosing not to be in schools today,” he said, though noted he hadn’t looked over the reason for every excused absence.
Messinger said he expects attendance to be back to the normal 95 percent to 98 percent by Friday.
The St. Vrain Valley School District has not responded to inquiries about whether its schools have also seen lower attendance rates today.
University of Colorado spokeswoman Deborah Mendez Wilson said the school has not seen an impact on campus operations so far, and will continue to provide basic services to faculty, staff and students.
“We play a dual role as both a university and an employer, and understand that immigration is an issue of increasing importance to students, faculty and staff on many levels,” she said in an emailed statement. “We know of one report of about 20 employees who have taken today off as part of the ‘Day Without an Immigrant’ protest, but we can’t say with certainty how many other employees may have taken today off in a sign of protest or solidarity. We have more than 8,000 employees.”
Boulder County businesses
In Longmont, Guacamole’s at 827 Ken Pratt Blvd. closed after employees asked for the day off, the owner’s wife confirmed.
El Comite Executive Director Marta Moreno said the Longmont organization will stay open to respond to anyone needing a place to go. She said she told business owners and employees it’s their choice whether to be out in public today or not.
“I’m here to back up whatever might happen, might not happen,” she said.
In Boulder, the Dagabi Cucina and Murphy’s restaurants are similarly closed today in support of “A Day Without Immigrants.”
“Due to the organized employee walkout named ‘Day Without Immigrants,’ we will not be able to properly staff the restaurant,” Murphy’s posted on Facebook. “In speaking with our employees, we have realized how important this event is to them, know how important they are to us and support their right to protest.”
The McDonald’s at 2920 Baseline Road in Boulder was also closed today, though it is unclear whether it was connected to the movement.
Boulder Organic Foods did not shut down today, but did give everyone the opportunity to take off of work if they chose in support of an immigration policy that works, company spokeswoman Jessica Flores said.
“The team strongly believes that our national food system relies on immigrants and the majority of its ingredients come from farms in California which undoubtedly rely on immigrant workers,” Flores said in an emailed statement.
Boulder-based Avalanche Commercial Cleaning, which serves about 200 clients across the county, will have between 70 percent and 90 percent fewer staff today, owner Markus Taekla estimated.
He said he’s allowing more than 80 employees, who are mostly immigrants, to take the day off if they choose out of protest of the “fear-based” immigration policies.
“They are my business,” he said. “They’re important people and it’s all about the people.”
Taekla said he understands the call to deport convicted felons who are immigrants, but the others “are people that have family and they are family.”
“They’re hard, hard working people and it is incredible what they do from day to day,” he said.
Amelia Arvesen: 303-684-5212, arvesena@times-call.com or twitter.com/ameliaarvesen
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