California have significantly impacted the downtown Los Angeles produce market, leaving it largely empty. Business owners report a drastic decline in customer traffic, as fear of deportation has caused many to stay home. Juan Ibarra, a local business owner, indicated that sales have plummeted due to the pervasive atmosphere of anxiety surrounding these raids. This situation reflects a broader trend where immigrant communities are retreating from public life to avoid potential encounters with law enforcement.
In downtown Los Angeles on Wednesday, KTLA’s Kimberly Cheng detailed unloaded crates of fresh produce in what’s typically a busy area full of workers and customers.
Some attribute the drop-off in shoppers and workers to concerns of being swept up in an ICE raid.
“I’ve noticed that a lot more people aren’t showing up, clients, people that work here … I’m pretty sure it’s fear,” one worker told Cheng. “A lot of people are afraid to get stopped by ICE police, because right now they’re not caring. Even citizens are getting stopped and almost taken.”
Perhaps one of the more notable such incidents occurred at the Santa Fe Springs Swap Meet over the weekend, when dozens of ICE agents swarmed the event.
Los Angeles Archbishop José H. Gomez said he has been “disturbed” by how many of these raids have been carried out, noting they’ve caused a deep panic among his majority-Latino parishioners.
“People are staying home from Mass and work, parks and stores are empty, the streets in many neighborhoods are silent,” Gomez said in an opinion piece for Angelus, a local Catholic news outlet. “Families are staying behind locked doors, out of fear. ... This situation is not worthy of a great nation.”
Chirinos Medina, who’s nine weeks pregnant, as well as her husband, their 8-year-old son, and their US-born toddler, wound up among the nearly 20 immigrant families detained by ICE for hours at that Los Angeles federal building the first Wednesday in June, she said. There were few answers about what was happening and, that night, her husband was arrested and later transferred to an ICE detention center to face deportation.
ICE operations is not only affecting individual livelihoods but also disrupting the local economy at large. Andrew Selee from the Migration Policy Institute argues that such actions create a “plague of fear and silence” within immigrant hubs . The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors has recognized this crisis by initiating studies on its economic impact on small businesses, highlighting the urgent need for policy interventions to support affected communities .
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