Los Angeles produce stalls, restaurants, and taco trucks—already bruised by on-again, off-again COVID closures—are now going dark for a different reason: fear.0
A chilling wave of ICE raids has swept across the city’s immigrant-rich neighborhoods, emptying wholesale markets and slashing sales by as much as 85 percent for some shop owners. One distributor who normally clears $2,000 a day told Reuters he’s lucky to see $300 as undocumented employees and customers alike stay home. (https://www.reuters.com/world/us/immigration-raids-los-angeles-hit-small-business-owners-its-worse-than-covid-2025-06-17/)
Those raids are about to intensify. President Donald Trump, in a Truth Social post on Sunday, ordered ICE to “do all in their power” to deliver “the single largest Mass Deportation Program in history.” The White House wants 3,000 arrests a day and has already deployed National Guard troops and Marines to cities like L.A. amid growing protests, CNN reports. Trump singled out “Democrat power centers” such as Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York, claiming—without evidence—that undocumented residents are used to “cheat in elections.”
Read the full CNN report at: https://www.cnn.com/2025/06/16/politics/trump-immigration-democratic-deportation-efforts
Economists warn that sweeping, non-targeted raids threaten California’s broader economy: immigrants make up one-third of the state’s workforce and 40 percent of its entrepreneurs. Business owners say the disruption already feels “worse than COVID,” and community advocates fear an even deeper downturn if quotas force ICE to broaden its net.
Stay tuned—escalating enforcement, legal challenges to troop deployments, and nationwide “No Kings” protests signal that this historic attack on immigrants3625, and its economic fallout, are far from over.
