It's no fun being an illegal alien.

Yesterday, May Day [and one hot ass Monday, at that], several thousand immigrants and sympathizers took to the streets of Austin as part of a nationwide "economic boycott" to demonstrate the impact of [undocumented?] immigrants on the U.S. economy, dubbed a "National Day Without Immigrants." As you can probably guess, many restaurants and construction sites sat idle on Monday. Judging from the lame local TV news coverage I saw last night, it was more like a "Day Without Breakfast Tacos" as they took time to interview some poor schmoes locked out of their favorite taco joint, looking like a bunch of junkies lurking outside a methadone clinic on a Sunday. Imagine that: Monday morning, 7 A.M., driving a bit out of your way to Taco Shack to pick up a bacon, egg, & cheese on the way to work . . . and the mofo is closed! That's rough. But that is only the first bitter taste of a day without immigrants, my friend. That's the kind of reporting that cuts to the heart of the matter. That's "coverage you can count on."

BTW - Taqueria Arandas #2 by my house was closed. "Day Without Tortas Cubanas." Mmmmm--I love their tortas.

The local news also interviewed a couple of sweaty Anglo protestors, who were also out marching on that unseasonably hot May afternoon in expression of their "solidarity" with the immigrant workers. And I wondered to myself how much "crossover" there is between the various demonstrations that seem to take place weekly at the south steps of the Texas capitol. It seems like some of the same folks are always out there protesting whether it's about gay rights, the death penalty, or the war in Iraq. Who has time for that? College students, I guess.

So, can we figure out the actual impact of this economic boycott? I asked one of our economists at work, and he said the best estimate would still be a wild guess. My best guess is it probably wasn't too big of a hit. It was Monday. How productive is the U.S. workforce on any given Monday, anyway? If the demonstators really wanted to show an impact, they should have boycotted on a Friday when restaurants normally see heavy patronage. But that would only impact a small segment of the economy. And how productive is the U.S. workforce on any given Friday, anyway?