Over 1,000 Yemeni businesses in Brooklyn have shut their doors in protest of President Trump's executive order, which prohibits refugees from Yemen and 6 other middle eastern countries from entering the United States. Approximately 6,000 New York City bodegas, or small grocery stores, are Yemeni owned. Gale Brewer, President of the Borough of Manhattan, attended protests and proclaimed that 24,000 New Yorkers were born in either Iran, Iraq, Syria, Sudan, Libya, Somalia or Yemen, a declaration that resulted in massive cheers from the protestors. Shop owners met and agreed to close from 12pm until 8pm on Thursday, a decision formed around not disrupting their daily morning customer's routines.
See "nside the Inspiring New York City Bodega Strike", Rebecca McCray, Rolling Stone, February 3, 2017