Deserted, silent streets. Restaurants closing their doors early, their workers quickly leaving without looking back. Trucks—an indispensable link in the supply chain—are dwindling. The chain is disrupted. They say the farmworkers who harvest the crops haven't come to work. That the drivers are calling in sick.

This isn't a scene from the destruction of Gaza, or under Russian bombing in Ukraine. This is a description of the Los Angeles area, especially Latino Los Angeles, these days.

It's the logical result of months of immigration raids, when masked, anonymous agents, in different and unrecognizable uniforms, heavily armed, riding in trucks or vans, show up in neighborhoods in a display of violence and impunity. They interrogate, they detain, based on skin color. They take people away in their vehicles to who knows where, all without identification other than a badge that simply says: “Police.”

This is what's happening in our neighborhoods.

In Los Angeles County, Latinos are almost five million residents, 48% of the total. And at least 8.5 million in the five counties of Southern California.

The Los Angeles neighborhood of El Sereno, with its dense Latino population, striking landscape, and founding in 1769 as an independent settlement, was the epicenter of an ICE immigration raid earlier this month.

One of the targets was the modest Green Grocer grocery store, which occupies half a block on Huntington Drive.

Masked agents walked right past it. Perhaps they'll see, as they pass by, that this peculiar store, which has faced so many difficulties for being unique, still displays its “special jam jars, handmade candles, handmade cards, and sodas that can only be found in Central America.”

The menacing presence of the troops is intimidating.

One of the owners says: “When the workers are afraid, they don't come in.”When suppliers lose team members overnight, deliveries stop. When our customers are worried about their family's safety,they can't focus on feeding their children healthy food. stop. They want to be left alone.

Several restaurant owners, supermarket representatives, and retail store owners were there, describing the damage caused by immigration raids.

“While immigrant families bear the deepest and most immediate impact, the domino effect disrupts our schools, our local businesses, and the social fabric of our communities,” said Alysia Bell, president of UNITE-LA, organizer of the press conference Unite LA, www.unitela.com, a community organization with an emphasis on. education and well-being, including that of immigrants.

“We are here today because Congress is making funding decisions right now that will directly affect California's workforce and economic stability,” Bell said.

Anyone familiar with California and the intensity of anti-immigrant activities understands that this is essentially an economic problem, one that transcends partisan affiliations. Reality is reality. And as the event organizers stated, “Workforce continuity is essential for regional prosperity and access to food in local neighborhoods.”

It's not just the drop in sales, they emphasized. It's not just the reduction in staff away from their jobs, whether because they were detained or out of fear of being detained. The raids have destabilized the entire supply chain in a way that affects local markets. Increasingly.

Sam Robles, owner of the Mexican restaurant La Carreta: “For the past eight months, every time there's been an ICE sighting in our neighborhood, it's quickly posted on social media, and within minutes, the streets are silent: no traffic, no people.”

What happens next is to be expected: “Everyone hides,” Robles added. “You can feel the tension in the air. We decided to close for the rest of the day. We know what comes next: an empty restaurant.”

Last month, UNITE LA had already organized 24 California business groups to send a letter on January 28 to the two senators representing California in Congress, expressing their serious concern about the situation.

“We respectfully urge the legislators to reconsider and revoke the funds included in the Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Bill for immigration enforcement activities,” the document states.

MORE CASES

Green Grocer is not the only store suffering the federal government's anti-immigrant crackdown. Not by a long shot. There are many. So many, in fact, that organizing is inevitable.

On January 13, Border Patrol agents conducted an immigration raid in the parking lot of the Home Depot in Downey. They took several people into custody.

Other stores in the same chain were the scene of raids against workers waiting there to be hired for the day.

Two weeks ago, a hundred neighbors and supporters, mostly white, protested at the Highland Park Home Depot for the same reason. It was one of several protests I witnessed. There's more. A month ago, federal agents in unmarked vehicles targeted vendors and businesses on the streets of Downtown's Fashion District. They stopped passersby, customers, and workers; they demanded and checked their documents. They questioned immigration status. "You're lying," they told citizens. There's more. Just recently, in an incident featured on Channel 7 news, at least 12 people were arrested by ICE agents. Alerted by social media alerts, activists watched as agents arrested a street vendor in Eagle Rock Plaza, in the Los Angeles neighborhood of the same name. They took it away, and all they could do was safeguard the merchandise to take it to their family. The raids especially harmed businesses with Latino customers or employees.

La Chispa de Oro restaurant, on Cesar Chavez in East Los Angeles, began closing its doors one day a week as frightened customers stopped frequenting it, reported the local site Boyle Heights Beat.

The publication interviewed employees, owners, and customers at a dozen restaurants in its neighborhood:

“…At Casa Fina, on 1st Street, they are talking about the possibility of laying off employees or even closing down”… “At Milpa Kitchen, they put up signs prohibiting ICE from entering private property”… “At The Big Burrito, on Wabash, they can't reduce their hours any further, for fear of driving away the few customers who still eat”… “The owner of Un Solo Sol has lost half his clientele since the raids began.”

The situation is especially deplorable for the more than 10,1,000 street vendors roam our streets—outside schools, factories, and hospitals—offering tasty and cheap food. And now? They have no choice but to stop selling.

In my neighborhood in Lake Balboa, Van Nuys, the corner by the post office is usually packed with street food stalls selling grilled dishes from at least four different countries. When the raids began, they disappeared. The following week they started reopening, now run by their children, teenagers who are citizens by birth. Two weeks later, the parents, immigrants, had to take the risk and return.

REACTIONS

We already know how they operate. It's worth repeating. Those suspected by the masked agents of being in the country without papers are interrogated, handcuffed, and detained. They are taken away in unmarked vans. They won't say where. That hurts, on a massive scale. Hilda Solis sent a document to the event detailing her fight to stop this federal government practice: “The aggressive enforcement of federal immigration laws in Los Angeles County is disrupting our economy, hurting working families, destabilizing small businesses, and testing our social safety net,” Solis said. The supervisor referred to a report from the Los Angeles County Department of Economic Opportunity and the County Economic Development Corporation, released on February 10 after six months of preparation at her and Supervisor Janice Hahn's urging. The study determined that “federal immigration enforcement measures have caused millions of dollars in business losses, widespread staffing shortages, and a marked decline in consumer activity.” “The Economic Impact Report?” Solis said, "This confirms what our communities have experienced firsthand. Immigration enforcement in Los Angeles County is disrupting our economy and harming workers' families, destabilizing small businesses, and testing our social safety net."