Juan Ibarra, who operates a fruit and vegetable stall in the heart of Los Angeles’ sprawling fresh produce market, is facing an unprecedented downturn. Normally a busy hub for Hispanic-owned restaurants, food trucks, and street vendors, the market was nearly deserted on Monday morning. The decline in activity follows a series of immigration enforcement raids conducted by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), including one just two blocks away at a nearby textile factory.
According to Ibarra, the impact has been severe:
“It’s pretty much a ghost town,” he said. “It’s almost COVID-like. People are scared. We can only last so long like this — a couple of months maybe.”
He explained that many of his regular customers—undocumented street vendors and restaurant workers—are now staying home in fear. Likewise, a large portion of the market’s estimated 300 undocumented workers are no longer reporting for duty. Ibarra, who pays $8,500 in monthly rent, typically earns around $2,000 per day. But now, he says, $300 is the best he can hope for. The situation has even forced him to discard unsold produce for the first time since the raids began, at a disposal cost of $70 per pallet.
Though Ibarra, 32, is a U.S. citizen born to Mexican parents, he says President Donald Trump’s strict immigration policies are hurting small businesses like his across the city. His story reflects a broader trend unfolding across Los Angeles and the state of California, where local entrepreneurs and economic experts warn that the crackdown on undocumented immigrants is causing widespread commercial disruption.
California’s economy relies heavily on its immigrant population. According to the American Immigration Council, immigrants make up a third of the state’s workforce and 40% of its entrepreneurs.
Amid backlash over the economic toll of mass deportations, the Trump administration recently instructed ICE to pause raids targeting restaurants, hotels, and farms. But for many, including business owners, the damage has already been done.
Protests erupted in Los Angeles in response to the ICE raids, prompting President Trump to deploy National Guard troops and U.S. Marines to the city, despite objections from Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom.
White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson defended the federal response, stating:
“It’s the Democrat riots — not enforcement of federal immigration law — that is hurting small businesses,” she told Reuters.
RESTAURANT INDUSTRY FEELS THE STRAIN
Pedro Jimenez, 62, who has owned and operated a Mexican restaurant in a working-class Hispanic neighborhood of Los Angeles for over two decades, has seen a sharp decline in business. Fear of ICE has kept many of his regular customers away. Jimenez, who received U.S. citizenship in 1987 under an amnesty law signed by then-President Ronald Reagan, reports his weekly revenue has dropped by $7,000 compared to two weeks ago.
On recent weekends, he’s had to close early due to empty tables.
“This is really hurting everybody’s business,” Jimenez said. “It’s terrible. It’s worse than COVID.”
According to Andrew Selee, president of the nonpartisan Migration Policy Institute, the administration initially focused immigration enforcement on individuals with criminal records. However, recent tactics appear more expansive, with raids now targeting workplaces.
“They are targeting the hard-working immigrants who are most integrated in American society,” Selee explained.
“The more immigration enforcement is indiscriminate and broad, rather than targeted, the more it disrupts the American economy in very real ways.”
Across Los Angeles, many immigrants have altered their routines to avoid detection. Some are skipping work, and others are staying indoors out of fear.
Luis, a 45-year-old hot dog vendor from Guatemala who asked to use only his first name for safety reasons, recounted how he visited the Santa Fe Springs swap meet over the weekend but quickly left when told that ICE agents had just arrived.
“This has all been psychologically exhausting,” he said. “I have to work to survive, but the rest of the time I stay inside.”
As the city grapples with the economic fallout of these enforcement actions, many fear the long-term effects will be difficult to reverse, especially for small businesses and communities reliant on undocumented labor.
