Businesses closed across the country on Monday as people participated in a Day Without Immigrants to protest the hostile actions and rhetoric from the Trump administration targeting immigrants and their communities. In Iowa, a group of Latino activists organized a Day Without Latinos as a way to support all immigrants on the day of protest.
“In Iowa, we have almost 120 businesses in more than 10 cities that joined this national action day,” Manny Galvez, publisher of El Trueque and one of the lead organizers, said in a news conference on Monday night. “They were closed all day. Hundreds of students, hundreds of workers — maybe thousands of workers — didn’t show up today for work in solidarity. But more important, to send a message: we are here, that we are part of this state and part of this country.”
“We believe this is not just about immigration. Personally, I have a strong belief that the motivation behind this is racism,” he continued. Galvez believes there is an ongoing effort to scapegoat immigrants and minority communities, especially Latinos, for political reasons.
“This is a message for the governor of Iowa, for the president of the United States, that no matter what they do, I feel like we have a right to be in this country,” he said.
The protests come against a background of increasing mass raids by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) that haven’t just detained undocumented immigrants, but also resulted in American citizens being held because ICE agents suspected them of being in the country without authorization. Tribal governments, especially in the Southwest, are warning Native Americans to carry ID to prove they are American citizens because of recent incidents with ICE agents.
Trump is now moving to revoke the legal status of refugees in the country under Temporary Protective Status (TPS), which allows people to legally reside and work in the U.S. if the State Department has determined it is too dangerous for them to return to their home countries. Venezuelan refugees appear to be the first group being targeted by the Trump administration. During the 2024 campaign, Trump repeatedly said he would also terminate TPS for Haitian refugees, as he repeatedly spread racist lies about Haitians in Ohio eating people’s pets.
At the state-level, organizers cited the Reynolds administration’s effort to create its own deportation system through SF 2340, a bill the governor signed last year that made it a state crime to be Iowa if a person to be in Iowa if they have previously been denied entry into the U.S., or been deported or otherwise removed from the country. It passed both the Iowa House and Senate with just Republican support.
A federal judge issued a temporary injunction stopping the state from enforcing SF 2340, and last month, the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the judge’s decision. Neither ruling was surprising because more than a century of Supreme Court decisions, the most recent issued in 2012, establish the federal government as the sole authority in matters of immigration, not states.
The Iowa organizers also cited the recent vandalism in Muscatine, in which two restaurants — one specializing in Puerto Rican cuisine, the other serving Mexican food — were defaced with spray-painted swastikas. “We don’t want you here,” was also spray-painted onto one of the restaurants.
During the news conference, Yaneli Canales said “a lot of what’s going on” with Trump and his supporters “is spreading misinformation, it’s a misuse of resources in our community, and is just spreading more fear and hate, which are tools that are commonly used in more authoritarian governments.”
Canales, a longtime Iowa City resident and activist, called the nationwide protest “a great statement and a way to unify the Latino community and all the communities that have felt targeted by these recent changes.”
“This is also a great way for our community here in Iowa — Iowa City and all the other surrounding communities — to come out and show support for one another,” she added.
Father Nils Jesus Hernandez, the pastor of Queen of Peace in Waterloo, explained the idea for the Day Without Immigrants in Iowa was for participants to stay home from work and school, and to refrain from buying anything that day, as a way of demonstrating the importance of the immigrant and Latino communities in everyday life in the state.
“We just want the politicians to know that our voice counts,” Hernandez said. He added that they wanted political leaders to understand, “Our dignity is valuable, just like their dignity.”
As day turned into night on Monday, a spontaneous march to support immigrants and voice opposition to Trump administration policies occurred in downtown Iowa City.
“The decentralized protest was organized solely by word of mouth and social media, which brought no less than 150 people to gather by the Old Capitol Building in protest of mass deportation,” the Daily Iowan’s Genevieve DiChiara and Emma Jane reported. “The crowd marched through downtown for over an hour, moving between streets, sidewalks, and the Pedestrian Mall with Iowa City police cars blocking traffic for safety.”
The marchers cheered and chanted, carrying flags from Mexico and other nations, and signs, including ones that declared “Families belong together,” and “I will drink my horchata hot because FUCK I.C.E.”
Two men, one carrying an American flag and the other a Trump flag, walked up to the marchers, attempting to provoke them. After some yelling, the marchers moved on.
“Shortly after 7 p.m., there was another standoff as the crowd on the sidewalk outside of the Old Capitol Town Center was confronted by the same two counter-protesters, now joined by three others,” the DI said. “Two of the new counter-protesters yelled that the protesters would be deported under Trump’s administration, shouting, ‘Adios, amigos.’
“Four Iowa City police officers approached and told the two counter-protesters to leave.”
Speaking about the Iowa City march during the news conference, Yaneli Canales said, “Seeing that the younger generations are very much involved, are very much aware and are ready to advocate for their family members is a great message.”
Galvez said he and his fellow organizers are working on plans for future demonstrations, and are currently holding Know Your Rights workshops for immigrant communities around the state.
“This is just a start,” he said. “We are not scared. We are not afraid of these policies. We are going to fight, because it’s the right thing to do.”