When UF professor Arnoldo Valle heard immigrants across the nation planned to strike on Thursday, the Mexican native canceled his classes.
Valles, who immigrated to the U.S. in 1986, organized a three-hour protest on Turlington Plaza in solidarity with the nationwide Day Without Immigrants strike.
In opposition to President Donald Trump’s hardline stance on immigration, foreign-born workers across the U.S. went on strike to show their everyday contributions to the American economy, according to USA Today.
Instead of going to work, immigrants protested in cities across the U.S, including Philadelphia, Washington, D.C. and New York.
About 20 people attending Valle’s protest.
“Immigrants are an integral part of the U.S. — culturally, economically and educationally, as we can see here at the university,” said Valle, a 54-year-old civil and coast-
al engineering professor.
Valle said if immigrants didn’t show up at UF for work one day, he guessed the university would be “half-functioning.”
“Imagine how many classes would be canceled,” he said.
His canceled classes, physical oceanography and data analysis techniques, have about 10 graduate students each. Valle emailed students and some colleagues, inviting them to join him. Some attended the protest.
“I don’t know if I’m going to get in trouble for this,” he said. “But we’re here in solidarity of all immigrants.”
Juan Paniagua, one of Valle’s geology doctorate students, held a sign that read: “Remember, this nation was made by immigrants.”
Paniagua, 30, a Colombian international student, said he protested to show his disapproval of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids being carried out across the country.
“Some people are in desperate situations,” said Paniagua, who plans to return to Colombia after he graduates. “They have U.S.-born kids, but they are going to be deported. They live in fear of when it’s going to happen.”
Diego Andres, a father of four who immigrated from Guatemala in 2004, also went on strike Thursday. Andres is a gardener for West Palm Landscaping Service, a Gainesville-based company.
“I think my boss already knew about it when I said I wasn’t going in, because he just said it was fine,” Andres said in Spanish.
The 27-year-old said he doesn’t understand why Trump issued the travel ban on seven Muslim-majority countries, or why immigration officers are carrying out raids.
“All the undocumented people I know come here to work,” he said. “They don’t come to steal. They come to pay taxes.”
He said he doesn’t regret striking, even if he misses a day of pay. “I feel that I did something good so that everyone knows how much
they need us here,” Andres said.
Contact Jimena Tavel at jtavel@alligator.org and follow her on Twitter at @taveljimena
Sangdon So, a visiting scholar for UF's College of Engineering who is originally from South Korea, protests in support of immigrants. He said he would like to get a green card and live with his family in the U.S., but he is uncertain that this will be a possibility for him.
