Dozens of members of Mayfield’s Hispanic community chanted and marched in the western Kentucky city Monday as part of “A Day Without Immigrants,” a nationwide initiative protesting recent anti-immigrant policies and highlighting the role that immigrants play in the U.S. economy.
The initiative – spread rapidly over social media in the past couple of days – called for immigrant communities to stay home from work and school and to not participate in the economy. Many businesses in other states closed for the day in solidarity with local immigrant communities, as some did when a similar initiative took place during President Donald Trump’s first term.
Antonio Aragonez – a native Texan who’s lived in Kentucky for more than a decade – learned about the movement from his mother, who he said missed work Monday to participate. He said that he wants people to see immigrants as individuals and not as the “illegal immigrant criminals” that some media and officials portray the community as being.
“We are individual people. We have feelings, we have a past, and we want to have a future here in the United States,” Aragonez said. “We're just trying to spread the love and remind everyone that there is no American, there is no Mexican, there is no Guatemalan. We're all just people here.”
Many passersby honked in support at the protestors, but Aragonez said that a handful expressed disapproval. He said that some teens made crude hand gestures and some driving trucks attempted to “roll coal” – essentially, make their vehicle belch exhaust – as they passed the group.
“A lot of people walk [by] saying, ‘Go Trump.’ People just kind of being negative,” he said. “But we're definitely just trying to … not reciprocate that anger, to just show that love.”
Aragonez said he was one of the first to arrive on the scene but, before long, he was joined by a growing crowd of people holding signs, waving maracas and chanting along Paris Road, one of Mayfield’s busiest thoroughfares.
Entire families joined the line to help draw attention to the protest. A nine-year-old girl who moved to the U.S. with her family from Guatemala carried a sign with “We Stand Together” printed in bubble letters, while others carried flags from their respective home countries.
Carmen Romero, who said she helps Mayfielders who don’t speak English to navigate the language barrier regarding their immigration status roughly translated one of the group’s chants: “We're all together. This is all one nation from Guatemala … Mexico and Honduras, and from other places. We're all together. We're united, and we're all Latinos.”
Aragonez, who led the crowd on a short march around the area, said the reception was mostly positive, with many passing drivers honking their horns in support.
“We're here to just show love and to just show that we are a big, vital part of this community. We work hard and we deserve to be here, and we love America just as much as you do.”
The protest comes amid reported U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids across the U.S.
Additional reporting by Derek Operle.
