ICE raids scaring away customers, business owners say
Deportation fears scaring away customers
With ICE raids happening across the country, business owners say deportation fears have driven away customers.
LOS ANGELES - Mariscos Guadalajara in Van Nuys is typically packed with customers at dinnertime, but the restaurant sits empty on Wednesday night. A few blocks away, Teresa's Haircut is also feeling the impact.
Maria Rosario Sanchez, owner of Teresa's Haircut, says, "The whole day is like this; it's slow. People are afraid to come out." Sanchez adds that it's been sluggish all week.
ICE has released photographs of recent arrests, showing men convicted of serious crimes ranging from extortion and trafficking to murder. However, immigration attorney Hillary Walsh points out that some detainees have no criminal record.
"My client has no criminal history and was a victim of a serious crime in California. He was assisting law enforcement in their investigation," says Hillary Walsh of New Frontier Immigration Law.
Walsh's client, of Indian descent, had a pending U-Visa—a visa for victims of crimes.
"He was stopped right outside his home and taken into ICE custody. This is odd because he recently had an ICE check-in where officials signed off on allowing him to stay for another year—only to then detain him unexpectedly," Walsh said.
At a press briefing on Tuesday, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed that the Trump administration considers all undocumented immigrants as criminals. "All of them, because they broke our nation's laws by entering illegally. As far as this administration is concerned, they are criminals," Leavitt said.
With President Trump's announcement of the plans to detain 30,000 undocumented immigrants at a facility in Guantanamo Bay, fear and uncertainty continue to spread in Latino communities. Van Nuys resident Carolina Deleon says, "It's sad because this country is for everybody. And the kids feel it—when you're scared, you pass that fear onto your children." Sanchez adds, "I feel nervous; the rent and bills are coming. We have to find a way to pay, but there's no business."