Feb.16, 2017 was a day many Latinos will remember across the entirety of the USA, a day where their voices were heard.

On that day, many members of the Latino community took a stand and went on a one-day “Day Without Immigrants” strike to show the Trump Administration what 11 million undocumented people were capable of. That’s not counting the other 30 million plus Latinos that are either naturalized citizens or were born in the USA.  

But did the protests have any effect?

A number of Fluvanna and Charlottesville area companies were contacted to see how and whether the protest affected their business. Perhaps due to the current controversial political climate–where many Americans (ranging from corporate CEO’s to individuals on Facebook) are reluctant to share their views on a variety of subjects for fear of being ridiculed by those who disagree with them– most of those contacted refused to even comment on the situation. Those that were willing to comment asked to be unidentified.

“I didn’t expect [the protest] to be as big as it was. We had to shut down over half of our production because only about 20 people showed up,” said the manager of one construction company in Central Virginia. He added that “there were two Latino guys that showed up, and when they realized what was going on they went home.”

One Latino-based local store closed down that day for the strike. A clerk at the store had this to say about the situation: “This had been a day that I, along with all other Latinos in the country, had been waiting for. We knew that we had to take action somehow because our voices were not being heard. And this was good for [the Latino community] to do because a lot of Latinos out there have to live with the fear of being deported and taken away from their families at any given moment.”

Even some local schools were affected by the protest.  “I didn’t expect to be missing as many kids as we did. We were missing roughly 60 plus kids, which is about two times what we normally miss,” said a representative of a school in Charlottesville which has over 1,100 students.

Schools in parts of the country with a higher immigrant population felt a much greater impact from the strike. For example, according to twincities.com, a school board official from the Dallas Independent School District said that their combined schools had more than 1,100 students missing that day.

The protest must have had some effect, since according to CNBC, approximately 100 workers were fired nationwide for participating in the strike. For example, foxnews.com noted that “twelve Latino employees from the I Don’t Care Bar and Grill in Tulsa, Okla. told Fox 23 News they were fired over text message because they didn’t show up for their shift and failed to let their employers know about their absence.”

In comparison, people in places like Fluvanna, which has a low immigrant population, might not have even have known about the event unless they had seen it in the media. “I heard about this strike that would be going happening on the news, but did not think much of it. The strike did not really affect us because we don’t normally have a big presence of Latinos coming in to eat, primarily based on our location,” said the manager.

But whether the protest had an impact on individuals’ school or workdays or not, the question remains: Was it effective? Did the day of protest really accomplish anything?

“I believe the message is a good idea, but people are not willing to risk their jobs to support it.  I don’t think even with more publicity that people will overwhelmingly participate [in future protests].  Not enough people supported the idea the first time to make any difference, so people will not feel a need to continue with this movement,” said FCHS teacher Gary Greenwood.