Business
Some US businesses close in ‘a day without immigrants’ amid protests
However, participation in the “day without immigrants” faced headwinds from employees and business owners who said they need the income — especially as rumours of widespread raids, often false, are leaving many migrant communities afraid to venture outside, affecting even some schools. Monday’s event also came on the heels of street protests Sunday in California and elsewhere.
Noel Xavier, organising director for the North Atlantic States Regional Council of Carpenters, said that while it’s important to remind the country of the value migrant workers bring to the communities they toil in, many workers couldn’t afford to take a day off.
“If I don’t go to work today, that’s one day less that I have, you know, to be able to pay for my next rent,” Xavier said of the prevailing sentiment among the workers he organises. “I didn’t see this big rallying around being able to do that, or having the luxury to be able to do that.”
Jaime di Paulo, president of the Illinois Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, noted that small restaurants and retailers in Chicago’s biggest Latino neighborhoods closed, but most major employers as well as those in construction and other industries were operating normally.
“This is only hurting our own community,” he said.
Andrea Toro decided to close her hair salon in Chicago’s Pilsen neighbourhood. She added that many of her clients are teachers and have seen children missing school since Trump took office last month because they fear it may not be safe to go. In Chicago, as in San Diego, school districts said some students and families were participating in Monday’s protest.
“If we don’t have immigrants, we don’t have anything work around here,” said Toro, who is from Puerto Rico. “If we’re mute, we’re in silence, then they’re going to do whatever they want.”
El Burrito Mercado, which boomed from a small Latino market in the 1970s to one of the most widely recognised restaurant, catering and grocery businesses in St. Paul, Minnesota, shut for the whole day in 2017 — when the latest major such event was held at the beginning of the first Trump administration.
But on Monday, it stayed open for a few hours with a skeleton crew, said co-owner Milissa Silva.
Her parents emigrated from Mexico, and most of the 90 employees have Mexican roots. But many staffers expressed concern about losing a work day and about depriving people in the neighborhood of access to groceries.
Similarly, the Spanish-immersion day care provider Tierra Encantada kept its 14 locations open. But many parents decided to keep their children home Monday in solidarity with the mostly first and second-generation immigrant workforce, said CEO Kristen Denzer.
Families — most of them not immigrants — pulled some 450 children from day care and preschool, about 70% of those enrolled in Minnesota alone, where most of the organisation’s centers are, Denzer said. Several staffers who had been on the fence decided to take the day after the show of support.
In Utah, several Latino-owned stores, restaurants and supermarkets closed their doors.
“The movement today, it’s more about being compassionate,” said state Sen. Luz Escamilla, a Democrat and Senate minority leader. “A lot of companies and communities are coming together in the state just to raise awareness of how much this has created a fear.”
Asked about the day of protest at his Monday media availability, Utah Senate President Stuart Adams, a Republican, defended Trump’s immigration policies and said law-abiding immigrants should have nothing to worry about.
“The only people that are being talked about being deported (are) those that are criminals, those that are on probation, those bad people who have committed difficult crimes,” Adams said.
While immigration enforcement officers continue to target for deportation migrants considered public safety and national security threats, a big change from the Biden administration is that officers can now arrest people without legal status if they run across them during operations.
The Trade Union of Nigeria, TUC, has raised the alarm that the price of Premium Motor Spirit aka Petrol may climb to about N2,000 per litre if urgent measures are not taken to cushion the impact of rising global crude prices and the depreciating naira.
Speaking to newsmen on Thursday, April 9, the president of the TUC, Festus Osifo, called on the Federal Government to immediately deploy 60 percent of excess crude oil revenue above the 2026 budget benchmark to subsidise crude feedstock supplies to the Dangote Refinery and other modular refineries, a move it says will slash pump prices of petrol, diesel, and jet fuel within two weeks
“Today, comrades, we are seeing that the cost of petrol is edging towards N2,000 per litre depending on the part of the country that you are. Nigerian workers are already passing through excruciating pain as we speak.
The same way it is affecting transportation, it is also affecting manufacturing. The cost of diesel has also gone northward, meaning that the cost of production has increased. When production costs rise, the final price of goods on the shelves will also skyrocket.
If this continues unchecked, the inflation that we are currently celebrating as going downwards will reverse and start moving up again,” he stated.
Osifo outlined the proposal as an urgent intervention to cushion Nigerian workers from excruciating pain caused by petrol prices edging towards ₦2,000 per litre in some parts of the country
The governor of Oyo state, Seyi Makinde, has approved a N10,000 transportation allowance as a palliative for the state workforce to cushion the effects of the increase in the pump price of Premium Motor Spirit, otherwise known as petrol.
The Chairman of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Oyo State chapter, Kayode Martins, in a statement released on Monday, March 23, disclosed that the governor has granted the request of the union on the issue of transportation allowance.
The statement read
“Following the intervention and formal request made by the State Council of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) earlier this morning, the state government has approved a N10,000 transportation allowance for all workers in the state.
The newly approved allowance is set to take effect from April 2026, providing much-needed relief to workers grappling with rising transportation costs amid current economic challenges.
This development comes as a direct response to sustained advocacy by the state NLC, aimed at cushioning the impact of increased living expenses on the workforce.
Further details on implementation are expected to be communicated by the relevant government authorities in due course.”
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), has declared that banks and financial institutions must establish and maintain a temporary watch-list for Bank Verification Numbers (BVN) implicated in suspected fraudulent transactions.
According to the CBN in a circular dated March 12, 2026 and signed by its Director of Payments System Policy Department, Musa I. Jimoh, the apex bank said such a suspected BVN may remain on the temporary watchlist for a maximum period of twenty-four (24) hours during which the owner would be contacted to make clarifications.
The circular explained that the move is part of several new measures under a revised regulatory framework aimed at enhancing financial system stability.
“A BVN may remain on this temporary Watchlist for a maximum period of twenty-four (24) hours, during this period, the BVN owner shall be contacted to provide clarification regarding the identified transaction(s),” the circular stated.
The circular also sets an age requirement for BVN enrolment, restricting registration to individuals who have attained eighteen (18) years and above.
The CBN also added that amendments to phone numbers linked to a BVN shall be allowed only once.
“Amendments to phone numbers linked to a BVN shall be allowed only once,” the circular noted.
The apex bank stated that access to BVN databases will remain tightly controlled.
“Access to the BVN databases shall be exclusively granted to Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) licensed financial institutions.
“Notwithstanding this provision, the Central Bank of Nigeria (the Bank) reserves the right to approve access to the BVN databases in extenuating circumstances and in accordance with the provisions of extant laws,” the circular said.
Financial institutions are expected to comply with the new requirements, and customers may be contacted by their banks if their BVNs are temporarily flagged during the new fraud monitoring process.
The new policy, as stated by the CBN, takes effect from May 1, 2026.
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