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Cesar's Killer Margaritas Closes To Mark "A Day Without Immigrants"

By  Ariel Cheung Linze Rice and Stephanie Lulay | February 16, 2017 6:16am 

 Cesar's Killer Margaritas will close both its Lakeview restaurants Thursday to join in the
Cesar's Killer Margaritas will close both its Lakeview restaurants Thursday to join in the "Day Without Immigrants" demonstration.
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LAKEVIEW — Cesar's Killer Margaritas will close both its restaurants Thursday, joining in "A Day Without Immigrants," a national walkout in protest of changing federal immigration policies.

The Mexican restaurants at 2924 N. Broadway and 3166 N. Clark St. will close so the owners can "stand in solidarity with our staff, family and customers," the company said.

"We are better when we're together," it said in a Facebook post late Wednesday.

Cesar's joins a growing list of Chicago restaurants participating in the boycott Thursday.

"A Day Without Immigrants" organizers across the country are asking foreign-born people to stay home from work and school and not spend money to demonstrate their value in the United States, regardless of legal status.

The movement has spread to Philadelphia, Boston, Austin and Washington, D.C., the Associated Press reported.

Chef Rick Bayless plans to close Frontera Grill, Topolobampo, Xoco and Fonda Frontera.

BomBon, a bakery on 26th Street in Little Village, will also close as workers are planning to stay home from work Thursday, owner Laura Perea confirmed. The family's 18th Street bakery in Pilsen might also close. 

RELATED: Rick Bayless To Close Restaurants Thursday In Solidarity With Immigrants

"My whole staff asked me not to work. There are a lot of Latinos in the city who want to be part of the movement," said Perea, who serves a Latino clientele. "As an owner, it's not the best feeling, but I have to understand where they are coming from. I have to support them."

At 11 a.m. Thursday, Arise Chicago and other immigrant rights groups will protest deportations in Union Park.  

While Thursday's actions are in response to the now-suspended travel ban from seven majority-Muslim countries, President Donald Trump is considering rewriting after a federal court of appeals left in place an emergency stay on the executive order, according to The Washington Post.

But it's not the first of its kind. The Great American Boycott took place May 1, 2006 in protest of a federal bill that would make living in the United States illegally a felony and impose stricter penalties for harboring undocumented immigrants.

An estimated 400,000 people marched in Chicago, where Polish, Irish, Asian and African people joined the mostly Latin American demonstrators.

The legislation also included plans for new border security fences on the Mexican border, but the bill stalled and failed to be approved before the 2006 election.