Eateries with a largely Hispanic customer base are choosing to close down temporarily. Cooks and dishwashers are staying home out of fear. Delivery drivers are sitting out shifts. And customers are finding that some menu items are no longer available, because somewhere along the supply chain someone was afraid to report for work.
As Border Patrol agents have fanned out across New Orleans over the past week to enforce the Trump administration’s deportation agenda, their presence has had a particularly chilling effect on the city’s many restaurants and their suppliers.
Amarys Koenig Herndon, a co-owner of Palm and Pine, an upscale restaurant in the city’s French Quarter, said that a few of her employees had chosen to stay home, regardless of their immigration status. “They’re working legally, but they’re hunkered down and not coming to pick up their paychecks,” she said.
The restaurant is struggling to keep offering all the items on its menu. “With the cuisine we do, we’re very dependent on our Latin markets for a lot of ingredients,” Ms. Herndon said, but many of those suppliers are short of staff and running out of inventory.
“One of the stores we go to, they get a lot driven in from Houston, and those trucks aren’t coming in,” she said. “They don’t want to risk coming into our city right now.
“There’s a lot of layers.”
Those ripple effects lay bare just how heavily New Orleans has come to depend on an immigrant work force to be the backbone of its robust culinary industry, which in turn helps sustain the city as a bustling tourism magnet.
Many of the city’s restaurants rely on undocumented workers — or migrants with a temporary legal status, which often comes with a work permit — to do jobs that few U.S. citizens and legal residents may be willing to take, like cleaning dishes. Some of these workers have been with their employers so long that they’ve become like family.
The Border Patrol operation leaves the restaurant owners in a bind: Either protect employees by letting them stay home from work, or press them to come in to keep the business afloat, and thereby increase the risk that they will be detained.
With many immigrant workers staying home, the demand for food deliveries has risen, but the supply of delivery drivers has shrunk. On Sunday, Ideal Market, a grocery that caters to Hispanic residents, said in a Facebook post that it had temporarily stopped offering delivery service “due to overwhelming demand.”
Border Patrol agents began arriving in New Orleans last Wednesday, led by Gregory Bovino, a senior agency official who has led similar operations in Los Angeles, Chicago and Charlotte, N.C. That afternoon, he led about two dozen agents through the French Quarter on foot in a show-of-force procession that drew stares, insults and praise.
The Department of Homeland Security said the operation, nicknamed Catahoula Crunch, would target “the worst of the worst” criminals who are in the country illegally, including violent offenders who had been released after being arrested.
In western suburbs like Kenner, which has a large immigrant population, there have been sporadic raids. Federal officials said that one undocumented immigrant was arrested on Thursday while working to repair the roof of a home on Marquette Drive, a move that bewildered the homeowner.
At the Cafe du Monde, a storied cafe in the French Quarter that is popular with tourists, sugared beignets and chicory coffee are served by a predominantly Vietnamese American staff, as has long been the case. On Thursday, some patrons at the cafe said they supported the immigration crackdown.
“I’m all for it,” said Jes Rathke, 56, who was visiting from San Antonio. “There needs to be rules, and there’s a right way to come into this country. Sneaking in is not right.”
“If they’re criminals, then yes,” Daniel Hahn, 26, who was visiting from Destin, Fla., said about the detention of immigrants. “But if they’re working, then leave them alone.”
Some residents have been organizing outings to visit the city’s Hispanic restaurants as a way of lending support. In June, as fear of a Border Patrol crackdown began percolating in the city, Craig Kraemer started a Facebook group called N’awlins Hungry Gringos, through which he organizes lunch meet-ups at Hispanic restaurants.
“I wanted to show some love to these communities that are being hated on right now,” he said, adding that he hoped other people would start similar groups.
On Friday, about a dozen people showed up for lunch at Jalisco Mexican Restaurant in Kenner.
The owners let customers in to the restaurant one at a time, locking the door behind each person, while Mr. Kraemer stood outside, keeping a lookout. “I didn’t expect to have to be watching for ICE during lunch today,” he said. “I didn’t realize how intense the fear really is.”
A waitress told the group that there was only one serving of fajitas left in the kitchen. “We usually get our fajita meat at Sam’s Club,” she explained, “but we’re too afraid to go there now.”
As plates of burritos and baskets of chips arrived at the table, the diners discussed the merits of their outing.
“Coming out to restaurants is a way to say we’re not afraid, and we’re going to do what we can to support you,” said Richard Saxer, 81, a retired Episcopal priest who has lived in New Orleans for over 40 years.
Across the table, Orissa Arend, 78, a mediator and social worker, mused between bites: “Eating out at great restaurants? This seems like such a New Orleans way to protest.”
Allison McCann is a reporter and graphics editor at The Times who covers immigration.
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