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Opinion

Column: Meet the TikTok star organizing ‘A Day Without Immigrants’

The protest on Feb. 14 — when immigrants won’t show up to work or school or spend money — is meant to pressure President Biden into prioritizing protecting immigrants.

By Jean GuerreroColumnist 
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Carlos Eduardo Espina, 23, has more than 2.5 million followers on TikTok and makes videos about immigration in Spanish. He spoke to Los Angeles Times Opinion about his plans to hold a nationwide “Day Without Immigrants” this Valentine’s Day.

The protest on Feb. 14 — when immigrants won’t show up to work or school or spend money — is meant to pressure President Biden into prioritizing protecting immigrants. Thousands of immigrants from across the country have said they’re going to participate.

Espina came to the U.S. from Uruguay when he was 5 years old. Based in College Station, Texas, he started offering citizenship classes on TikTok during the COVID-19 pandemic and quickly became a social media celebrity, speaking directly to immigrants about issues that matter to them.

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Jean Guerrero

Jean Guerrero is a former opinion columnist at the Los Angeles Times. Her writing has been featured in Vanity Fair, Politico, the Nation, Wired, the New York Times, the Washington Post and “Best American Essays 2019,” and she has contributed to NPR, “PBS NewsHour” and more. She started her career as a commodities correspondent in Mexico City for the Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones Newswires. She is the author, most recently, of “Hatemonger: Stephen Miller, Donald Trump and the White Nationalist Agenda.” Her first book, “Crux: A Cross-Border Memoir,” won a PEN Literary Award. A native of San Diego, she is a graduate of USC’s journalism school and has a master of fine arts in nonfiction from Goucher College.

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