Let's Do Dinner Another Night, Honey

A heads-up to the Lord of Truth, the Priest of Parliament Lights, and all my other friends in and around Philadelphia: dinner Tuesday night might not show up on time...

Illegal immigrants in the Philadelphia labor force - described by one Center City restaurateur as the "dirty little secret" of his industry - want to make themselves seen, heard and missed on Valentine's Day.

Local activists have urged undocumented workers throughout the region, particularly Mexicans who staff the city's restaurants, to strike on Tuesday, one of the biggest dining days of the year.

Organizers say the work stoppage, by a population typically on tiptoe, is to demonstrate the economic contribution of undocumented "shadow workers" and to protest a bill in Congress that would make illegal immigration a felony punishable by prison time.

"The call is to the employers, to make them realize they have a stake, and that they need to weigh in," said Ricardo Diaz, the independent organizer who sparked the effort.

Advocates for illegal immigrants around the country have toyed with the idea of a real-world staging of A Day Without a Mexican, a 2004 feature film about the impact on California when its Latino residents disappear.

Tuesday's effort, billed as A Day Without an Immigrant, would be the first such strike by illegal immigrants anywhere in the United States, according to advocates.
Valentine's Day is the second-most-popular day of the year for dining out, according to the Pennsylvania Restaurant Association. A number of restaurateurs in Center City, who asked not to be identified because they employ illegal immigrants, said they would be crippled by a strike.

"It would be a terrible hardship for us," the owner of a Fitler Square bistro said. "I don't know how we would be able to function."

The restaurateur said that a "Dear Employer" form letter, prepared by organizers to help workers explain their absence on Feb. 14, was faxed to him this week. It asked for his support in defeating the Border Protection, Anti-Terrorism and Illegal Immigration Control Act drafted by Reps. James Sensenbrenner (R., Wis.) and Peter King (R., N.Y.) and passed by the House of Representatives in December. The Senate is to discuss immigration next month.

(hat tip: The Confederate Yankee at Redstate) Let me get this straight. This is supposed to help the cause of people who want to help illegal immigrants get legal status? Piss off the employers and aggravate the general public? Okay, maybe some derelict boyfriends will be able to use this as an excuse to skip taking their women to dinner (yes, AC, I'm thinking of you), but that's not exactly the political base that will help defeat enforcement efforts.

What's more, the actual letter, which can be found at Redstate, essentially says the following: We're breaking the soft immigration laws America refuses to enforce, and really hate the idea that the penalties and enforcement might get tougher. We're going to strike to blackmail you into fighting Congressional efforts to strengthen enforcement. Please forgive us and help us continue to break the law, so that you can continue to exploit us as a cheap labor source.

I can think of one way to respond if I were a restaurant owner -- if you skip work, you're fired. It looks like some of the owners are taking this stance. Then again, maybe we need to find out why they're hiring illegal immigrants when it's against the law.