Businesses close for A Day Without Immigrants
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Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios
At least 60 Pittsburgh business owners joined a daylong strike on Monday to underscore the role immigrants play in the city's economy.
Why it matters: President Trump's promise to deport millions of undocumented immigrants could remove workers from U.S. industries where they have an outsized impact, including in the hospitality, construction and agriculture sectors.
Driving the news: Popular Mexican restaurants and construction companies were among the Pittsburgh-area businesses participating in the nationwide A Day Without Immigrants.
- The fear among Pittsburgh's foreign-born population, regardless of their citizenship status, is so high that most participating business owners didn't want to be singled out, says Monica Ruiz, executive director of nonprofit Latino resource center Casa San José.
The big picture: A handful of targeted U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrests in southwestern Pennsylvania — primarily outside Allegheny County — and false ICE reports on social media have left many immigrants afraid to go to work, says Ruiz.
Catch up quick: Trump issued a series of executive orders aggressively targeting undocumented immigrants shortly after taking office last month, prompting ICE raids in Cleveland, Atlanta, New Jersey and elsewhere.
- Pittsburgh-area advocacy groups say ICE does appear to be more active in southwestern Pennsylvania, but enforcement is focused on specific individuals rather than businesses.
- Activists urge people to seek reliable sources and report ICE sightings to Casa San José.
What they're saying: "I think it's important to understand that what's happening now politically is scaring people," says Ruiz. "People are afraid to go to work. People are afraid to be walking around … because of the color of their skin. This is not the type of environment we want to live in."
- Deputy Mayor Jake Pawlak reaffirmed Mayor Ed Gainey's prior pledge that the city won't work alongside ICE, noting the city "does not collect information on someone's citizenship or immigration status in the course of law enforcement."
- "The story of Pittsburgh is a story of immigrant communities coming here for economic opportunities," Pawlak said Monday.
Zoom out: A 2023 report by the American Immigration Council found that while Pittsburgh's population decreased by 1.3% from 2014 to 2019, the city's immigrant population grew by nearly 19%.
- Immigrants made up 9% of the city's population, according to the report, but accounted for 9.2% of its labor force.
- A 2019 Pew Research Center report showed Pittsburgh's undocumented immigrant population is among the smallest of any large nationwide metro.