West Berkeley’s CoRo Coffee Room was one of several businesses that shut their doors Friday. Credit: Tracey Taylor/Berkeleyside
Several local businesses have closed their doors and demonstrations are planned around the region Friday as Berkeley residents join a nationwide strike against the Trump Administration’s immigration policies.
The “no work, no school, no shopping” protest backed by student organizers at the University of Minnesota has drawn support from immigrant rights groups, unions and celebrities across the country. A list of demands on the website NationalShutdown.org includes calls to defund U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and justice for four people who have been fatally shot by federal agents in recent months.
Berkeley’s Cheese Board Collective wrote on its website that it is closed Friday “in solidarity with Minneapolis and all immigrants and their supporters.”
The West Berkeley cafe CoRo Coffee Room was also shuttered. A container of free coffee and several paper cups were left outside the shop Friday morning, with a request that people instead donate to the San Francisco legal services organization La Raza Centro Legal.
Nabolom Bakery, Tessier Winery, Broc Cellars winery, Bageltopia and Touchstone Climbing, which operates the Berkeley Ironworks rock climbing gym, also wrote on their social media accounts that they will be closed. Other merchants expressed support for the protest but opted to remain open — Amoeba Music, Rose Pizzeria and the bookstore Mrs. Dalloway’s were among several businesses that said they planned to make donations to immigrant rights organizations.
“Like many Americans, we are very concerned by the unlawful and abusive actions of federal immigration enforcement right now in our country,” a post from Bageltopia read. “Human dignity and constitutional rights are at risk and our leaders need to hear how we feel about it.”
In a message to families sent Thursday, Berkeley Unified School District Superintendent Enikia Ford Morthel wrote that schools will be open as usual Friday. While the district “recognizes the power of collective action and supports every person’s right to peaceful protest,” Ford Morthel wrote, teachers will be taking attendance as usual.
Student organizers at UC Berkeley are planning to meet at the Crescent Lawn on campus at noon Friday, then march together to BART so they can join a larger protest planned for San Francisco’s Mission Dolores Park at 1 p.m.
Another rally is planned for Fruitvale Plaza in Oakland at 2 p.m.
Check back for updates to this developing news story. Staff writers Tracey Taylor and Vanessa Arredondo contributed reporting.
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