DES MOINES – Immigrants are being asked to stay home from work, school and stores May 1 to protest federal immigration reform legislation.

Organizers of National Day Without Immigrants say they hope it highlights the contributions immigrants make to the country and the economy.

Proposed legislation would make it a crime to be in the United States illegally or to assist illegal immigrants.

A coalition of Iowa organizations and individuals called United For the Dignity and Safety of Immigrants is organizing the event, which also is being promoted in other areas of the country.

Rose Arceo said she plans to close her Mexican restaurant on May 1, giving her, her husband and the 40 Mexican employees who work at the restaurant on the city’s east side the day off.

“I close the store because I want to help the immigrants,” said Arceo, who was born in Guadalajara, Mexico. “All my employees are planning on staying home. Nobody goes out and shops.”

Cargill Meat Solutions, which owns a pork-processing plant in Ottumwa, will shut down May 1. Nearly half of Cargill’s 2,400 employees in Ottumwa are Hispanic.

“In talking with our employees, we think this was the right decision,” said Mark Klein, a spokesman for Cargill.

Swift & Co. in Marshalltown has 2,150 employees, of whom 75 percent are Hispanic. Swift asked employees to request the time off, which will be approved on a “case-by-case” basis, a spokesman said.

Officials at Tyson Foods Inc., which has packing plants in Denison, Perry, Columbus Junction, Storm Lake and Waterloo, have not decided how to handle employees who want the day off, an official said.

The boycott plan angers retired nurse Aggie Snyder, 62, of Des Moines.

“I don’t think there is anything the illegals can do to make people like me believe that they should be able to stay here,” she said.