New York City Bodegas Will Shut Down To Protest The Immigration Ban

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Michael Corey / Flickr / Via flic.kr

Days after New York yellow cab drivers went on strike to protest President Trump's executive order on immigration, another community of immigrants central to the life of the city are planning a strike of their own. Bodega owners — a trade dominated by Yemeni Americans in New York City — plan to close their doors on Thursday to show their opposition to the ban.

The strike is planned from 12-8 p.m., so morning coffee and egg-and-cheeses will be be unaffected. Organizers say more than 1,000 Yemeni American grocery store owners across the five boroughs plan to participate.

Yemeni Americans are heavily represented in the New York bodega scene, and many have family members still in the process of applying for residency, whose visa applications are now on hold.

“This shutdown of grocery stores and bodegas will be a public show of the vital role these grocers and their families play in New York’s economic and social fabric,” the strike organizers wrote on Facebook. During the shutdown, grocery store owners will spend time with their families and loved ones to support each other; many of these families have been directly affected by the Ban.”

At a planned event on Thursday evening, at Brooklyn Borough Hall, “merchants will share the impact the Ban has had on them and their loved ones,” as well as “stories read on behalf of families who are afraid to come forward.”

They also plan a public call to prayer at sundown.

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