Editor’s Note: In this story, Boyle Heights Beat is identifying immigrants by first name to protect their identities.
On most weekdays, shoppers bounce from stall to stall at El Mercadito, buying anything from dried chiles to tortilla presses. But on a recent Tuesday morning, the halls were mostly silent. Business owners stood outside their stalls, calling out to the few customers that passed by.
“You can see it, it’s almost empty,” said Bernardo, an employee of a stall at the historic Eastside market. “The people are only buying the essential things.”
Bernardo said that his stall, which sells fresh meats, cheeses and Mexican candy, has been hit hard by the drop in regular customers.
A few stalls down a vendor selling boots and other leather goods reported a 70% decrease in sales since November. Another said she’s noticed families who regularly bring six or seven people now send just one member to gather groceries and goods.
One vendor put it simply: “It’s ICE. People are scared.”
Vendors at El Mercadito are not the only ones feeling the impact of a drop in foot traffic. Business owners and street vendors across Boyle Heights report fewer customers and sporadic employee attendance, a shift they suspect is linked to growing fear and anxiety surrounding the Trump administration’s increased crackdown on immigration.
Rumors that a massive sweep by Immigration and Customs Enforcement would take place in L.A. this past Sunday led local pro-immigrant activist groups – many from the Community Self-Defense Coalition – to conduct patrols and alert the community. While videos posted on social media showed agent sightings in L.A. County, including one where activists followed an ICE operation in Alhambra, the “large-scale” raids many feared failed to materialize, according to the Los Angeles Times.
ICE did not provide Boyle Heights Beat with the number of arrests conducted this weekend.
Melchor Moreno, owner of La Chispa de Oro restaurant in Boyle Heights, said his cash sales were down nearly 25% on Sunday when the ICE raids were rumored to be taking place.
“People are actually scared,” Moreno said. “You can tell the streets are just dead, there’s no foot traffic.”
Mateo, an immigrant from Guatemala who sells fruit along Cesar Chavez Avenue, agreed. He said he lost $200 to $300 during the abnormally slow weekend. Ever since Donald Trump became president, he said, he’s seen a general drop in customers and pedestrians along the popular thoroughfare.
“Hopefully [business] is going to get better soon, but I don’t know,” Mateo said. “I didn’t see any profit this weekend.”
A recent decline in customers is what forced Tortilleria San Marcos to close one day a week and scale back tortilla production, according to employee Anna Garcia.
The Boyle Heights business is a key supplier of fresh, homemade tortillas to local restaurants and taqueros. But longtime customers have told Garcia they’ve cut back on their taco stand operations, fearing they’ll be stopped by ICE while working, while others have reduced their hours because of a lack of business.
While fear has sparked many in the neighborhood to retreat, others, like Maria, continue to work out of necessity, armed with knowledge of their rights.
Despite being undocumented, the 51-year-old vendor said she felt prepared to face ICE agents if they approached her while selling clothes at her stall in Boyle Heights. She credits community organizers for educating her and relies on her red “Know Your Rights” card, which outlines how to respond during ICE interactions. She’s even memorized the numbers to call if she needs legal help.
“We are inviting people to come out and not be fearful because they [ICE] can’t do anything to you. You need to know your rights,” Maria said in Spanish. “They can’t take you if they don’t have a warrant. They don’t come for you if they don’t have your name, so they’re not just going to randomly pick you up.”
Maria emphasized how unafraid she felt even when many of her own customers experienced anxiety from the looming threat of ICE raids in their communities. After living in the U.S. for 25 years, she said she was determined to dig her heels in and fight for her right to live in the country where she pays taxes – and she encourages others to do the same.
“I am prepared, if (ICE) comes to me, I will ask them to show me a letter with my name,” she said. “Un pueblo unido jamas sera vencido.”