Across the country Thursday, thousands of immigrants closed their businesses, refused to go to work, and kept their children home from school for a “Day Without Immigrants.” It was a protest against President Trump’s crackdown against immigration and immigrants living in the United States. The protests in San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York, Phoenix, Chicago, Philadelphia, Atlanta, Detroit, Raleigh, Austin and other cities came after Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, sent shock waves through immigrant communities by arresting at least 680 people in a series of raids last week. In Washington, D.C., hundreds of immigrants marched from the Mount Pleasant neighborhood to the White House. This is Irma Andino, an employee at Capital One bank and an immigrant from El Salvador.

Irma Andino: “I’m hoping that [the protest] opens Congress’s eyes, because if they were separated from their families, they wouldn’t like it. And like if I went to my country now, I wouldn’t even know where to go or what to do. I don’t know it. I belong here. I’m part of here. I grew up here. So I think it’s important to show support and to try to open their eyes that we’re not here to be criminals, or, you know, everybody is the same. We are all loved in God’s eyes.”