Young and old, male and female, children and adults, legal and illegal - thousands participated in The Great American Boycott, or what some have dubbed as "A Day Without an Immigrant" protest and demonstration, bringing some retail shops - such as the ones pictured here - to a virtual standstill. These businesses along Maple Ave. in the Fashion District closed on this day either to show solidarity with the protestors or due to a high rate of absentee employees taking part in the demonstration. The Great American Boycott (known in Spanish as "El Gran Paro Estadounidense") took place on May 1, 2006 and was a one-day boycott of U.S. schools and businesses by immigrants, most of Latin American origin, of both legal and illegal status - protesting the anti-immigration movement and demanding general amnesty and legalization programs for non-citizens. Organizers of this boycott called for supporters to abstain from buying, selling, working, and attending school in order to demonstrate the extent to which the obtained labor of unauthorized immigrants is needed for the economy of the United States; for this reason, the day was referred to as "A Day Without an Immigrant". It was estimated that over one million people across the U.S. participated in the protests and demonstrations - the largest of which were in Los Angeles and Chicago. The boycott and strike provoked controversy as soon as they were proposed, stirring up the sentiments of millions of people living in the United States legally and illegally and emphasizing the extremely emotional issue of illegal immigration in America, as well as initiating intense debate on all sides of the political spectrum. Photo dated: May 1, 2006.
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