Businesses nationwide close to protest Trump immigration policies

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WLNE) — Several businesses from daycares to grocery stores and hair salons closed on Monday nationwide in protest of the current administration’s immigration policies.

The loosely organized protest was called a “Day Without Immigrants.”

“Our parents and our grandparents fought for us to be here and I feel like the way they are doing it now of getting people in the streets and at work is just horrible,” said Lizet Rangel of Fontana, California.

“Every person here is a foreigner to some degree. And we are just standing up for our rights, for what we believe in for for all of the hard work that a lot of these individuals including myself have done,” said Sonia Espitia of Huntington Beach, California.

While immigration enforcement officers say they continue to target migrants considered public safety and national security threats, a big change from the Biden administration is that officers can now arrest people without legal status, if they run across them during operations.