Dozens of Detroit’s Latino-Owned Restaurants Are Closed for ‘Day Without Immigrants’

Dozens of Latino-owned restaurants, food trucks, bakeries, and other food businesses throughout Southwest Detroit, parts of Downriver, and elsewhere in southeast Michigan have closed for the day in solidarity with the “Day Without Immigrants” movement taking shape across the nation. Activists and community leaders are asking immigrants to skip shopping, work, and school on Monday, February 3. Among the restaurants, supermarkets, bakeries, and other food businesses participating in the action include: La Jalisciense Supermercado Y Taqueria; the fleet of food trucks and restaurants run by the family behind El Parian; Taqueria el Rey; El Salpicon; La Terraza; El Salpicon; Taqueria La Morena; Vamonos; Nepantla Cafe vegan food truck; and numerous others. The call to action has been circulating on social media for several days. At least 100 businesses may be participating, according to an unverified list that’s been making the rounds. The actions come in response to President Trump’s immigration crackdown with a surge of Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids taking place across the United States. Over the weekend, demonstrators carrying Mexican and Central American flags protested outside of Los Angeles City Hall before taking the march to the 101 Freeway. The Day Without Immigrants demonstration is intended to combat yet another wave of anti-immigrant sentiment in the United States and to shine the spotlight on the contributions that immigrants make to the economy and community. In 2017, a previous Day Without Immigrants action was taken in the months following Trump’s first election, wherein thousands of small businesses across the country — including in Detroit — took part in the protest as workers stayed home from work, children took a day out of school, entrepreneurs kept their storefronts closed, and consumers held off on spending money. Rocky Coronado, a 2024 James Beard semifinalist for Emerging Chef and owner of Nepantla Cafe vegan food truck, says they’ve been waiting for years to take part in such an action. They moved to Detroit from Texas in 2017, shortly after the previous demonstration. Coronado was like many in the local business community in hearing about the Day Without Immigrants campaign in online forums in recent days and while their food truck is currently closed for winter, they felt the need to show their solidarity with other businesses and community members. In addition, they are involved in several mutual aid groups in the area dedicated to raising awareness about ICE presence and informing residents of their rights. “There’s so much racism and ‘go back to your country’ [type] of rhetoric going on right now,” Coronado says. “But then they come to our neighborhoods and our grocery stores, they eat all [our] food, but just like, hate us.” Meanwhile, immigration advocates in Detroit were joined by residents, advocates, and others, including U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib, who has been mobilizing in southwest Detroit in recent days to inform residents about their rights should they become the target of ICE enforcement. Ruby Robinson of the Michigan Immigrant Rights Center told WDIV that over the last few weeks, the organization has seen triple the volume of phone calls from people looking for help. Southwest Detroit boasts Michigan’s largest Latino immigrant population and sits just a short distance from the Ambassador Bridge. The bridge is the busiest border crossing between the U.S. and Canada and has historically given immigration enforcement officials amplified policing authority compared to states or jurisdictions further than 100 miles from the border.