An Immigrant, Not a Worker: Depiction of the 2006 ‘Day without an Immigrant’ Protests in Printed Media of the United States

writing about the Day Without an Immigrant (DWI) Protests within the year of the 2006 protests are analyzed in order to understand narratives on labor activism of documented and undocumented immigrants in the United States. DWI protests marked an anticipated ‘turning point\u27 in collective action among immigrant workers in the United States. Content analysis was employed to ascertain the portrayal of the protesters by a variety of print media sources. Both univariate and multivariate procedures utilized find that charged rhetoric of racialized anti-immigrant sentiment is present in most sources regardless of the ‘political leaning\u27 of the press, reaffirming the status of ‘other\u27 to both documented and undocumented migrants in the United States in the present day. Protesters ultimately were not seen as workers, but solely as immigrants. The findings illustrate the continued marginalization and racialization of more recent immigrant workers in the United States