A national day without immigrants

White conservative business owners fucked around, now they're finding out

Welcome to a special Thursday edition of Progress Report.

While I’m working on tonight’s premium member newsletter focused on state and local news for premium subscribers, I want to immediately share this very timely piece by my friend Thomas about a mass protest happening today in cities across the country. The piece also has the benefit of leading off with a very funny and insightful bit about Ron DeSantis and Elon Musk, so make sure you read the entire thing.

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by

Thomas Kennedy

Ron DeSantis is already making history: Last week, after more than a year spent preparing, Ron DeSantis produced one of the worst presidential campaign launches in United States history. Eschewing traditional media tactics, he decided instead to court the far-right troll community by making the announcement in a Twitter Spaces conversation with Elon Musk, the world’s richest and dumbest man. To simply say it was a flop would be doing Ron a significant favor.

The relatively sparsely attended event began with several minutes of silence, which were then broken by the sound of intense microphone feedback as soon as audio began. I literally turned to my colleague with a smile on my face and said “this is not going to go well.” If there was any silver lining, it was that relatively few people were tuning in, so weren’t that many to chase away.

The screeching feedback was followed by long periods of silence, which were interrupted by uncomfortable throat clearing, Elon Musk complaining on what appeared to be a hot mic about his own shitty technology, and the disappearance of several hosts, including DeSantis himself.

After about 25 minutes of utter incompetence and several crashes, they were finally able to get it working for the diehards and people who had left it on mute and forgot that the Space was still open.

DeSantis led off with the driest and most boring prepared remarks possible, an audio-only version of his stump speech that felt like a Fireside Chat designed to make listeners set things on fire. He railed against Covid mitigation policies, the woke, the left and all the other usual insipid and meaningless bullshit that he likes to ramble about. You’ll have to take it from me, though, because Twitter spaces lack the ability to record audio. There are no clips to be shared with the outside world beyond the obsessives who waited out all of that noise and comical flailing at 6pm on a Wednesday.

Not that he’s physically imposing or visually distinguishable for anything other than ill-fitting suits, but at least video can distract from a voice that is nasally, whiny, and just plain annoying to listen to. How his advisors thought that this would play to his strengths is beyond me, but that’s what happens when you hire a bunch of hyper online lunatics who can’t log off to advise your presidential campaign.

It looks more broadly like the DeSantis campaign is imploding as it begins, and if it does wind up in full collapse, the Twitter debacle could very well be remembered as a sort of Howard Dean scream moment for the social media era. More importantly, DeSantis’s face flop would be a victory for the United States. The Florida blueprint that he so often touts would be a disaster for the nation, and the state is going through its own kind of slow moving implosion.

A Day Without Immigrants

In mid-May, DeSantis signed Senate Bill 168, a broad package that includes a bunch of unhinged anti-immigrant policies meant to terrorize undocumented people, isolate them from society, and drive them away from their family members.

Here are some of its worst provisions:

• Makes it a second-degree felony for someone to transport any undocumented immigrant info Florida, provided that they should “reasonably” know their immigration status.

• Require all hospitals that accept Medicaid and emergency departments to ask questions about citizenship and lawful presence in the United States on their admission or registration forms. This is intended to create a climate of intimidation and fear that will discourage patients from seeking care.

• Prohibits local funding of community identification programs (such as popularly-supported municipal level identification cards)

• Creates new restrictions for small businesses that want to hire immigrant workers.

• And repeals language that allows undocumented people to practice law in Florida.

The law doesn’t go into effect until July 1st, but Florida is already feeling the economic consequences of DeSantis' extreme anti-immigrant policies. And ironically, it’s the business community that DeSantis so values that is bearing the brunt of it.

The state is facing work shortages and empty work sites due to increasing fears among immigrant workers in the state. Employers are trying to navigate the incredible amount of uncertainty that has been wrought by the law, as economic observers point out that Senate Bill 1718 “could bring Florida’s economy to a halt.” There are 4.5 million immigrants who call Florida home and two million Floridians who have at least one immigrant parent, and so many of them could face criminal charges just for being in a car with them.

They may be staying away from some worksites, but the immigrant community in Florida is not backing down. Today, organizations such as Unidos Immokalee, Coalition of Immokalee Workers, and Florida Immigrant Coalition, along with small business owners and workers, are taking part in mobilizations collectively dubbed “A Day Without Immigrants,” which is meant to give bigots an idea of what that would actually look like.

Streets in cities across the country are right now flooded with peaceful protestors who skipped work and classes to instead take a clear and public stand against SB 1718 and similar laws in other states.

That list is growing: Kansas just recently passed an even harsher version of the Florida law, as it includes third and second degree felonies for having an undocumented person in your home or car, even if they are family. This is what DeSantis and his cronies want to do nationwide: Terrorize immigrants and make their lives a living hell. We can’t let that happen.

The June 1st actions follow a successful mobilization in Homestead that saw over 3,000 people turnout to protest SB 1718. Organizers of the June 1st rallies and boycotts are working to replicate similar turnout across the state and country.

Let’s remember what DeSantis’ “Florida blueprint” actually means:

• A Disintegrating property insurance market

• Skyrocketing housing and rental costs

• Banned books in schools 

• Most toll roads in the nation — with no income tax, they have to gouge working people in every way possible

• Abortion bans

• Criminalization of immigrants

• Union-busting

• Anti-LGBTQ laws

• Massive taxpayer funded corporate giveaways

No thanks.

Here are the “Day Without Immigrants” protests that are happening across the country:

California

• Los Angeles: Placita Olvera

• Santa Ana: Memorial Park

Colorado

• Denver: State Capitol

Florida

• Pierson: Saint Peter’s Catholic Church San Jose Mission

• Jacksonville: Drew Park

• Vero Beach: Riverside Park

• Immokalee: Fiesta Parking Lot

• Tampa: Al Lopez Park

• Orlando: State Rep. Carolina Amesty’s Office

Illinois

• Chicago: Union Park

Minnesota

• St. Paul: State Capitol

South Carolina

• Charleston: City Hall

Texas

• Houston: City Hall

• Fort Worth: La Gran Plaza

Thomas Kennedy is an elected Democratic National Committee member from Florida. You can find him on Twitter and Instagram at @tomaskenn.