The Day After

So, how did yesterday's rallies and demonstrations actually affect the economy? One can be sure that those businesses most affected were the ones who hired or catered to illegal immigrants. Thus, cities like Los Angeles were more affected than other cities.

One New York business took it upon itself to fire some of the employees who took off for this 'day of protest.'

The man who fired her, Patrick Lee, 32, said he understands her feelings, but he has a business to run. When 10 of his staff members asked on Friday to take the day off, he didn't have time to get replacements.

"It was irresponsible. You don't come to me at 5 on Friday and say you're not showing up on Monday," said Lee. "If they had given notice, it would have been different."

Lee managed to convince four of the 10 to come to work yesterday. He fired the other six.

"It's been crazy today," said Lee, who was pouring coffee and handling the cash register in the packed store.

One of the workers who was fired was being paid $9 an hour according to an interview. Gothamist has more on the New York protests.

Apparently, the NYS Assembly has more important things to do with its time than try to figure out how to fix the state's fiscal situation. They took the opportunity yesterday to walk out after reciting the Pledge of Allegience to join with demonstrators for immigrant rights (though we're really talking about extending rights to illegal aliens). One could argue that this was an improvement in legislative action since it meant one less opportunity for the Assembly to screw things up.

***One thing I've noticed is that some of those demonstrating are not offering a position on immigration other than to oppose HR 4437, which included a provision to increase the penalty for being in the US illegally from a misdemeanor to a felony. Many of those protesting were apparently for amnesty for illegal aliens, as were many of the preprinted posters from groups like ANSWER and United for Peace and Justice. Lou Dobbs also notes the extremists who have taken over the immigrants-rights movement, not to mention the failure of major media outlets to note precisely who is behind them:

Most of the mainstream media has been absolutely co-opted by the open borders and illegal immigration advocates. I'm not opposed to demonstrations and protests of any kind, even by those who are not citizens of this country, because one way or another, demonstrations and protests enrich and invigorate the national debate and raise the public consciousness of truth.

But only one newspaper, to its credit, reported that illegal aliens and their supporters' boycott of the national economy on the First of May is clear evidence that radical elements have seized control of the movement. The Washington Post, alone among national papers, reported that ANSWER (Act Now to Stop War and End Racism) has become an active promoter of the national boycott.

Some illegal immigration and open borders activists in the Hispanic community are deeply concerned about the involvement of the left-wing radical group. But others, like Juan Jose Gutierrez, whom I've interviewed a number of times over the past several months, manages to be both director of Latino Movement USA and a representative of ANSWER.

As Gutierrez told us on my show, "The time has come...where we need to stand up and make a statement. We need to do what the American people did when they pulled away from the British crown. And I am sure that back in those days many people were concerned that was radical action."

Just how significant is the impact of leftists within the illegal immigration movement? It is no accident that they chose May 1 as their day of demonstration and boycott. It is the worldwide day of commemorative demonstrations by various socialist, communist, and even anarchic organizations.

Steve Dunleavy thinks that a guest worker plan is the way to go, echoing the view of President Bush. A guest worker plan should come only after the US border is secured to prevent others from coming in to take advantage of any kind of amnesty or guest worker plan. Build a border security fence or wall and man it with sufficient patrols to actually make it secure. Right now, border security is a joke.

UPDATE:
I've clarified a paragraph above, as denoted by the ***.

Michelle Malkin has a roundup of photos that you wont find in the big media outlet coverage of yesterday's demonstrations. It isn't hard to figure out why. The sentiments expressed in those banners and images would cause many to reconsider their positions on border control and illegal immigration and take a hard line to finally seal the borders with a real wall and impose actual control of the US borders. Dan Rielh notes those images, and the anger that they could provoke, but also believes that some kind of amnesty plan will be part of the final formulation for immigration reform.

Others blogging: The Political Pit Bull and Hyscience who notes that a picture is worth a 1000 words. In this case, it speaks volumes as the protestors are seeking to make the Southwest US into part of Mexico. For some of those marching. this isn't about amnesty or illegal aliens, but about conquest of lands that they somehow believe should be part of Mexico.

UPDATE:
Newsweek has an interesting article about the economic impact of yesterday's illegal immigrant walkout/solidarity march.

In certain industries, they made their case. In the West and Midwest, a number of meatpacking companies were forced to close. In California and Arizona, produce fields were absent of migrant pickers. And in Los Angeles, Chicago and New York, a number of businesses lacked sufficient staff to operate.

But the protests didn’t bring the economy to a halt, as some organizers had hoped. And that, says one economist, is because Americans overestimate the actual impact undocumented workers have on our economy. “It’s a positive benefit, but it’s not the be-all end-all of the economy,” says James P. Smith, an economist at the Rand Corporation who specializes in immigration labor. He spoke with NEWSWEEK’s Jessica Bennett about the relationship between the U.S. economy and the nation’s 11 million undocumented workers.

What's left unsaid is that many of those same businesses and industries were hiring illegal aliens, which itself is a criminal violation.

I know that I've written a post before that said that businesses should not bear the onus of enforcing immigration law, but businesses shouldn't get off scot free either. The march and business disruptions point the way at those businesses that might be taking advantage of illegal aliens as cheap labor and therefore ought to be visited by ICE to determine whether, in fact, they were violating federal law. Does this mean that wine and some produce might become more expensive as a result? Perhaps. But the upside is that we'll start seeing border control and the illegal alien problem being dealt with as it should have been all along.