In the Fashion District on Friday morning, workers hoisted up the metal grates protecting storefronts, strung up canopies and set up racks of clothing and signs advertising sales for $1 accessories, $2 shirts.
Browsing lacy stockings and harnesses at Wendy’s Lingerie on Maple Avenue, Faith Avila, 24, and her friend had no idea that a mere 24 hours before, the intersection a few yards away had been locked down by federal agents. Or that the store she was browsing in had shut down the rest of the day as a result.
Federal agents had carried out an immigration sweep, unsettling shoppers and distressing business owners who were struggling from last year’s enforcement operations.
The sweep took place late Thursday morning near Maple Avenue and 11th Street. Videos shared on social media show armed agents standing in the middle of the intersection while a procession of unmarked vehicles turned into 11th Street.
Witnesses reported seeing the agents visiting vendors and requesting proof of citizenship. It was not immediately clear if anyone had been taken.
In an email response to The Times, a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson did not provide details of the operation but said that federal immigration agents would continue to operate in the city.
Thursday’s sweep came less than a year after the Trump administration kicked off its mass deportation campaign at the Fashion District, a popular shopping area covering more than 100 blocks of L.A.’s downtown and home to more than 4,000 independently and minority-owned businesses, many of them with predominantly Latino workers.
In June, federal immigration agents targeted four businesses in the shopping district.
Those raids were followed by months of protests in the city and clashes with federal immigration agents at the detention center where detainees were being held until release or transfer. Hundreds of active Marines and National Guard members were sent to the city in response, setting off a legal standoff between California and the Trump administration.
But the operations that month turned the bustling shopping district into a ghost town. Foot traffic plummeted and business sales declined.
At women’s clothing store Isabella Blush, located a block away from where the operation took place, Dulce Ramirez said she was inside the store when she first heard screaming. Then, she saw people sprinting down the street; some got in cars and skidded away while others pulled out their phones and began filming the agents.
Ramirez said her boss, the store owner, suggested closing for the day but she told him she didn’t mind staying open.
“But it was just dead,” she said.
Magaly Hoffman, 45, an employee at a nearby bridal and quinceañera dress shop who asked that the business not be named, said a mother took refuge in the store, then frantically called her sons on the phone. Hoffman said some people were laughing from nerves.
She said the sweeps prompted two vendors selling hot dogs and fruit to flee. They never returned. She said a perfume shop across the street did not reopen in the morning. Nor did a storefront selling Italian shoes.
“Yesterday after 12 p.m., I had zero customers,” Hoffman said. “I’m going to be honest. I expected a good day.”
Anthony Rodriguez, president and executive of the L.A. Fashion District Business Improvement District, a private group of property owners in the area, said last summer’s operation led to a 37% drop in visits to the district. Although businesses continued to struggle, the summer season helped ease the blow.
“Historically, this time after the holidays is slower for the retail business,” he said. ”So the timing of this is what complicates things and kind of concerns us a little bit more.”
Businesses are struggling more than the pandemic, he said, when they received government support during the downturn.
“That’s not the case now,” Rodriguez said. “These people are on their own. They live from sale to sale, dollar to dollar, day to day, and there is no help coming.”
Rodriguez urged Angelenos to shop at the district to support the business owners.
On social media, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass decried Thursday’s operation.
“ICE was seen today in the Fashion District, an area still struggling months after past raids drove away customers and left workers afraid to return,” she wrote on X. “This Administration used Los Angeles as the blueprint for racial profiling policies and the illegal takeover of our cities.”
Before the raids, Ramirez said the women’s clothing store would bring in some $1,800 in sales per day. These days, it’s down to $200. And Ramirez said she no longer has to fight people on the street for parking. There are plenty of meters free each morning.
About a block down the street from Ramirez, a man who owns a business selling electronics and household appliances, as well as a cart selling cold drinks, said he’s trying every strategy he can think of to revive sales. He said he’s seen an 80% drop in business since the June raids.
The man, who declined to give his name fearing repercussions from federal agents, has operated one business or another — usually multiple — in the area for some 37 years.
“You have to do a lot of different stuff. No one item works anymore. Before I could just sell speakers. Now I have all this,” he said gesturing to a nearby table with game consoles and brightly lit screens flashing Super Mario Bros and Captain America game displays.
Next to the video games, he carefully arranged dozens of stuffed Hello Kitty dolls on a rack above rows of grinning Lafufus — an off-brand version of Labubus — and piles of incense sticks and tennis shoes.
“Times are rough,” he said. “We have three more years with this government [the Trump administration]. We don’t know how we are going to end up.”
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