A furniture store proprietor in Inglewood laid off his employees following the immigration enforcement surge last summer and says he now works twice as hard to earn half as much as he did before.
A restaurant owner lost $20,000 in canceled catering contracts last summer, as sweeps across the county coincided with the summer celebration season.
A swap meet vendor who made up to $1,500 a week on Saturday and Sunday before the raids and now only makes up to $500.
“The Latino customers have disappeared. Some were deported, others self-deported,” the swap meet vendor, identified only by a pseudonym, said. “I am left only with the clients who were born here.”
Those were just some of the stories captured in a new study from the UCLA Latino Policy and Politics Institute, in partnership with Inclusive Action for the City, focused on the long lasting impact of immigration enforcement on small businesses and Latino entrepreneurs in Los Angeles County following the immigration raids last year in June.
The report, published Wednesday, looks specifically at how the enforcement surge affected commercial activity near nine enforcement sites and the experiences of 75 Latino entrepreneurs across the county.
Researchers found there were 46,000 fewer customer visits among formal businesses within half a mile of nine documented enforcement sites and an estimated $3.16 million in accumulated revenue losses during the two weeks after enforcement activity.
The authors of the study estimated that their circumscribed findings extrapolated county-wide could represent up to $114 million in losses over a month of sustained enforcement.
“Latino businesses have not recovered. These businesses function as local economic engines. They employ neighbors, buy from local suppliers, and keep money circulating in their communities,” Amada Armenta, director of LPPI and a co-author of the report, said in a news release. “When enforcement drives away their customers and workers, the harm extends to the health, wellbeing, and safety of entire communities.”
According to the report, a mobile food vendor consolidated three vending locations into one and a salon owner combined two locations to help reduce rent and costs. A churro cart vendor, operating in South Los Angeles for more than a decade, stopped vending altogether for six weeks at the peak of the roving sweeps, losing an estimated $5,000 in income. Others described preparing to either relocate or close entirely.
Latino entrepreneurs, who participated in focus groups and surveys, described fewer customers, reduced operating hours, canceled orders, staffing disruptions, depleted savings and accumulated debt. Nearly a year later, 95% continued to report financial stress, researchers found, with 52% of participants saying revenue no longer consistently covers operating costs. Another 43% of participants reported breaking even with little or no profit.
“I’ve never questioned my longevity until recently. I never thought about my store not being a store,” one respondent, only identified by a pseudonym, Natalia, said. “The climate of everything is not hopeful.”
Researchers also found that 76% of participants reported that enforcement affected their wellbeing. They described dealing with panic attacks, anxiety, depression, gastrointestinal disorders and other stress-related illnesses.
According to the report, a wellness store owner said she relapsed into alcohol use after maintaining sobriety, due to prolonged feelings of helplessness and loss of control during the enforcement period.
A street vendor, identified only by a pseudonym, Lourdes, said she and her husband barely worked for five months. As their savings ran out, she said it triggered so much stress that she developed facial paralysis.
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