At the first Day Without Immigrants in February, businesses in Minnesota and across the country closed to show the impact of immigrant workers in every part of the economy, from the food industry, to child and health care, to agriculture and construction.
Many are gearing up for a second event on Thursday, May 1, in connection with International Workers’ Day. The day’s events will include a rally and march at the State Capitol calling for immigrant rights.
The event will mark the second “Day Without Immigrants” event celebrated in Minnesota this year.
Latifah Moss, a spokesperson for Minnesota Immigrant Rights Action Committee (MIRAC), said about 20 organizations are helping organize the rally including some labor unions and immigrant rights organizations.
MIRAC wasn’t an organizer for the February event, according to Moss who said that day was a nationwide call to action. Although similar to the February protest, Moss said some businesses have said they would not be open tomorrow as a sign of support.
Moss said the May Day protests, which they’ve been organizing since 2009, tend to draw crowds of a few thousands. This year Moss said she expects a crowd closer to eight or 9,000 attendees.
“[It’s] for people to recognize how important and how special the community is and how they do contribute to our everyday lives,” Moss said.
To mark the “Day Without Immigrants” Sahan Journal spoke to four Twin Cities immigrants about their contributions to Minnesota’s economy.
The homebuilder
Miguel Martinez Manzano moved from Mexico to Minnesota when he was 13 and went directly into the workforce after high school.
“I tried a lot of stuff, I was cleaning, I was working in the hockey stadium,” Martinez Manzano said. “I didn’t like sweeping and mopping, so I thought: ‘There’s got to be something else.’”
Martinez Manzano landed a job in the construction industry but initially struggled. The hours were long, benefits nonexistent and the pay was low, according to him.
He said he started off at about $10 per hour as a general laborer where he helped install doors, windows and sidings for buildings, but some laborers could make up to $25 per hour.
“It was hard for me at the time, because a lot of people you go work for, you just put [in] all these hours, and then at the end of the day, they don’t pay you,” he said.
By 2019, Martinez Manzano had become a union carpenter. He’s worked building schools, homeless shelters and other buildings.
His work in the construction industry supports a family of five kids.
“It made me feel happy knowing that we’re working somewhere where the kids [are] going to go and learn and stuff, make it look nice,” Martinez Manzano said.
The 38-year-old said after 20 years in the construction industry he can’t see builders succeeding without immigrant workers like himself.
“Our work is very important,” Martinez Manzano said. “I’ve worked with others [nonimmigrants] that don’t move the same as us.”
The welcoming committee
Jiwan Bk moved to the U.S. in 2014 from Nepal and not long after fell into gig work to make a living, most notably driving for Uber and Lyft.
Bk said he’s a people person and driving allows him to meet many different people.
After the pandemic, Bk made the move from Maryland to Minnesota where he continued driving for Uber and Lyft.
“I was a student, when I started, it was so flexible for the timing, that’s why I chose Uber and Lyft,” he said.
Now Bk drives full-time. On average, he drives up to 10 hours a day, sometimes seven days a week.
A lot of his rides are tourists and business travelers, but he picks up locals out for a night on the town.
Bk said the majority of rideshare drivers he knows are immigrants.
He’s one of thousands working in the rideshare industry in Minnesota. A March 2024 study commissioned by the state found that 61% of all Minnesota rideshare drivers are foreign-born.
The community builder
HmongTown Marketplace founder Toua Xiong turns 60 this summer, and the serial entrepreneur is busier than ever. He launched the St. Paul market in 2004 and has a ribbon-cutting planned on his newest venture, the Pan Asian Center at Maplewood Mall, on Saturday.
Xiong arrived in Minnesota as a refugee in 1986. Before that he had spent seven years in a refugee camp in Thailand and four years living in the jungle.
However Xiong said his past didn’t stop him but rather inspired him to work hard. At 18, and newly arrived in the U.S., he pushed himself to earn both a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in business administration and accounting.
“[I] study very hard, using Hmong dictionary, Lao dictionary, Thai dictionary and English dictionary to understand the textbook,” Xiong said.
In the early 2000s, Xiong opened the HmongTown Marketplace to give Hmong immigrants of his generation the opportunity to work for themselves and make a good living. The money they earned helped pay for their children and grandchildren to attend school and move from tight-knit communities on St. Paul’s East Side to nearby suburbs, including Maplewood..
Now more than 20 years later, Xiong said he wants to create something for the next generation. According to him, newer generations might not be as well served going to HmongTown Marketplace or Hmong Village so he wants to create a space his grandchildren can also enjoy all while continuing his goal of offering economic empowerment to his people.
“I have such a big burning desire to create economic engines for our people to learn how to do businesses in the future, to have a place, to have fun, all those good things,” Xiong said.
The dreamer
Juventino Meza will be sworn in as an attorney in Minnesota on May 9 nearly nine years after he started law school.
Meza arrived in Minnesota in 2003 as a 15-year-old who dreamed of helping his family. While physically demanding jobs like construction or farm labor were available, he chose another path.
“I don’t want to be outside doing physical work, I don’t want to milk cows, I just want to be at home reading a book. That’s kind of what led me to this career away from physical labor,” Meza said.
His legal status became his biggest obstacle in pursuing a law degree.
In 2012, he gained work authorization under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, which helped him attend law school. But even after starting his program, financial constraints led him to drop out twice.
While away from school Meza still worked in law offices as a paralegal and helped found an organization to provide resources for other immigrant students facing similar barriers now known as Unidos MN.
Meza finally graduated law school in spring 2023 and recently passed the bar exam. He said he hopes he can be an example to other immigrants to branch out and take nontraditional paths.
“Overall as a community we are overrepresented in some sectors that don’t compensate for our work well, I believe we need more of us in other areas of the economy because then we get to call the shots and make better policy decisions,” Meza said.
After being sworn in Meza said his career will continue to focus on immigrants and navigating a “broken” immigration system, but in the meantime he said it was important to share some good news.
“Without our positive stories we’re going to end up in negative conversations, we can all be better at speaking up and telling our stories,” he said.
