Factories were silent, fields stood empty and shops and restaurants remained shuttered across the US as hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants took part in a national day of protest.
Angered by a Republican proposal to criminalise all undocumented immigrants and those who help them, many of the country's estimated 12 million illegal immigrants stayed away from work and school and avoided shopping.
The biggest demonstrations were in southern California, where police expected up to half a million people at a march in Los Angeles, and schools reported that thousands of children stayed away. In downtown Los Angeles, as many as one in three businesses shut down.
Much of California's agricultural business came to a halt as fruit and vegetable pickers, most of whom are immigrants, stayed at home.
Building sites and restaurants throughout the US shut down and 70 per cent of workers failed to show up for work at some branches of McDonalds.
Tyson Foods Inc., the world's largest meat producer, closed 12 of its more than 100 plants and saw "higher-than-usual absenteeism" at others. Poultry processor Perdue Farms closed eight of its 14 chicken plants.
By early afternoon, police said 300,000 people had gathered in Chicago to demonstrate against the criminalisation of illegal immigrants and to call for the undocumented to be given a chance to become US citizens.
In New York, protesters gathered in Queens, the city's most ethnically diverse district, waving US and Latin American flags and holding banners saying, "We are Americans" and "Full Rights for All Immigrants". In Washington's Adams Morgan neighbourhood, home to a large Hispanic population, most shops and restaurants closed as thousands of demonstrators met in Malcolm X Park. Some immigrants cut short their working day to attend demonstrations and others waited until after work to protest.
The Irish Lobby for Immigration Reform opposed yesterday's boycott as counter-productive, urging supporters to attend work and demonstrate later.
Yesterday's protest was the latest in a series of high-profile demonstrations undertaken by immigrants in the US in recent months.
White House press secretary Scott McClellan yesterday restated President George W Bush's opposition to the boycott but said the president was determined to introduce comprehensive immigration reform.
"I'm not sure what kind of impact it has on the discussion in Congress. But the president is focused on continuing to work with senators to get a comprehensive Bill off the floor of the United States Senate and into conference committee. . . this is an emotional issue. But we have a broken immigration system, and we have some 12 million undocumented people in this country," he said.
Republican and Democratic leaders in the Senate will resume discussion next week of a proposal that would tighten border security but allow most illegal immigrants already in the US to stay in the country and apply for citizenship.
Republicans in the House of Representatives oppose the Senate Bill, which they describe as an amnesty.