Businesses across Tucson gathered Thursday to announce their participation in what organizers are calling a "National Shutdown" on Friday, January 30, to protest Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations in their communities.
The business owners held a press conference to encourage other businesses to join the movement, which, according to the National Shutdown's website, calls for "no work, no school, no shopping, stop funding ICE."
For Yolia Botanica owner Lupita Zepeda, ICE's actions toward the undocumented community hit close to home.
"As an immigrant woman, as a first-generation Mexican immigrant woman, it hits hard because there have been countless of Black and Brown bodies that have died prior to this," Zepeda said.
Zepeda said she lived as an undocumented person for 15 years before gaining legal status, and has been waiting for this moment.
"I've been waiting for people to finally open their eyes and see it's not that far away from it happening to you," she said.
That's why she's joining the national shutdown by closing Yolia Botanica on Thursday.
"We're here because we're realizing the power that we have," Zepeda said. "And if we start to lead with fear, then we're going to lose. But if you start to lead with courage and you start to lead with purpose and conviction, then you start to see how much farther you're going to get."
The national shutdown movement encourages businesses to close across the country and for people to protest instead.
The business owners say they hope that the potential disruption of the shutdown will be enough to make the Trump Administration take notice.
However, not everyone can afford to take time off work or close their businesses. That's why some establishments like Revolutionary Grounds Books and Coffee are finding alternative ways to support the shutdown while keeping employees paid and community members and their kids safe.
Joy Soler, owner of Revolutionary Grounds, said after discussions with staff, family and other parents at her daughter's elementary school, they decided to stay open but operate on a donations-only basis.
"We want to make sure we're in alignment with this work stoppage," Soler said. "We think it's really important we align with those values and it's important to us to support that and just also still be able to pay the staff that are going to be coming to work that day."
The coffee shop will offer kid-friendly activities and a limited menu during the shutdown, where customers can leave a donation for the business.
Soler does hope the shutdown will be the first step to making what she says is a safer community.
My younger child and her friends in fourth grade came up with their very own plan about what to do if federal agents come and start taking people away, and that broke my heart, because they're kids." Soler said. "I think if you care about your community, then you've got to find a way to support your community. And it doesn'thave to look the same for everybody."
Soler concluded with this...
"Not everybody can stay away from work," she said. "Not everybody can march in the streets.
Not everybody can put their politics out there like we do. But everybody can do something, and I think everybody cares about their community, even if their politics don'talign."
Zepeda said she wants people who are afraid to know that those with what she says is the privilege to be able to go out, are fighting for them.
"I'm fighting for them because I wish somebody had done that for my mother and for us when we were children," she said.
Protests are expected to take place on January 30th as part of the national movement.
