These days, Alejandro Cabrera doesn’t do much work in his office. The manager of Touch and Glow Car Wash in Whittier instead stays outside, where his workers are, keeping his eyes peeled for approaching vehicles.
If he glimpses a white Ford F-150, the type of vehicle federal law enforcement agents often use, or a gray suburban — or any car with tinted windows — his heart begins to pound.
Cabrera has been on edge ever since June 9, when immigration agents raided the car wash and took three workers, although he said one was later released. His fears were only confirmed when agents returned five days later and snatched another worker.
“All the time, I’m always looking for those cars,” Cabrera said.
The rash of immigration raids at local car washes have created stressful environments at the businesses that have been targeted and forced others to temporarily close out of fear of future raids.
Two dozen car washes in the Los Angeles and Orange County areas have been the sites of immigration sweeps this month, according to CLEAN Carwash Worker Center, a labor advocacy nonprofit that said it has been able to verify these raids through community reports and footage on social media.
Some car washes that have been targeted, such as the one that Cabrera supervises, have remained open. Others have lost enough workers — either because they were detained by immigration officials or because they’re staying home, fearing future raids — that they have been forced to shut down.
Misael, the owner of a car wash in Marina Del Rey, said he had to close his doors for four days straight because his employees weren’t coming in. He opened the business seven years ago to pursue the American dream, he said.
Misael, who declined to share his last name and asked The Times not to name his car wash out of fear for his employees’ safety, is a legal immigrant from Mexico, but many of his workers don’t have legal status.
“Everybody’s scared. I’m scared too. But what can I do?” he said. “I have to pay the bills, I have to pay the rent.”
Misael said on Wednesday that business has been particularly slow after the raids, which could be due to the fact that customers at car wash locations have also been detained by immigration officials in prior hits.
Car washes are nearly ubiquitous in the car-dependent Los Angeles, with CLEAN estimating that there’s roughly 500 businesses in Los Angeles County employing about 10,000 people. The economic fallout of some of these businesses closing, even temporarily, is likely to have ripple effects.
“This is going to affect us all,” said Flor Melendrez, executive director of CLEAN. “Because our restaurants are not full, our stores are not full, our car washes are not full, that means the workers in our communities who are not going to work, they’re also not going to be spending. Those businesses that usually make a profit are not going to make a profit.”
Westchester Hand Wash, which was hit by raids on consecutive days earlier this month, was closed for more than a week.
Mehmet Aydogan, the car wash’s owner, said of the seven workers who were picked up by immigration agents earlier this month, five have already been deported.
Other workers are lying low, and several quit outright, said Aydogan, who took over the business two years ago.
“Everyone is really afraid to come back to work,” Aydogan said. “They want to go back to Mexico, they told me. They don’t even go outside the house. They are waiting until things calm down to leave.”
Aydogan said he worries the federal government crackdown will drive away workers and customers — especially if the enforcement actions continue for weeks or months.
“This will be very bad. I will lose all the guys, and no one will come to the business as customer or employee. And everyone will think something is wrong with this car wash,” he said. “It’s destroying the business.”
On Friday, Aydogan said he was finally able to reopen, but he only had two to three workers. The car wash is operating on limited hours, closing at noon because it is short-staffed.
But early Thursday morning, before the business was reopened, several potential customers drove up to the lot where Westchester Hand Wash sits. About six cars pulled up to the normally bustling location, confused as to why their regular spot wasn’t attracting a long line of sap-covered cars, as it usually would on a spring morning.
Cynthia Bell, a 59-year-old resident of Playa Vista and regular customer, got out of her car to take a closer look at the sign that read, “Sorry, we are now closed.”
“My car needs a good wash and they’ll clean your mats and everything, but just looking at it, it looks kind of deserted,” Bell said. “I’ve never seen it like this.”
A small crowd of customers began to gather around 8:45 a.m., and Bell said she wondered whether they’d be open at 9 a.m. “They’re always open early,” another said.
On Friday, Aydogan said he was relieved to be back in business, but concerned about the uncertainty that lies ahead.
“I hope we can make it to survive this month,” he said. “And then next month, I don’t know what will happen.”
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