AILSA CHANG, HOST:
Amid ongoing ICE raids around here in Los Angeles, many immigrant communities are fearful about living their daily lives, like leaving their homes, showing up to work, shopping at local businesses. Freelance journalist Benjamin Gottlieb spent some time in the San Fernando Valley, one of the many hubs of Latino immigrant life in this city. He talked to residents, business owners and workers, and joins us now to tell us more about how all these recent raids are affecting people and changing their routines, Hi, Benjamin.
BENJAMIN GOTTLIEB: How's it going?
CHANG: Good. Well, I understand that you spoke with dozens of people who live in this area and who are here without legal status, right? What are they telling you?
GOTTLIEB: Yeah, they're telling me they are incredibly afraid. And also there's this growing sense of helplessness. I mean, so many folks are just staying home. When I was out reporting, I saw an unusually low number of people milling about, especially on Van Nuys Boulevard, which is this major street in this part of Los Angeles. It felt like a ghost town really. I spoke with about a dozen day laborers and street vendors. Many were happy to chat but fearful recorded or give any identifying information.
One person who was willing to be recorded asked me not to use his name because he's here without documentation and he has U.S.-born children. He's afraid of being separated from them or of all of them being deported. He and his wife sell cut fruits out of the family pickup truck. She grills hotdogs and vegetables on a makeshift stove. And they work out of a Home Depot parking lot. Many of their clients are day laborers and shoppers. And several ICE raids have taken place around Home Depots, so they're very scared. Take a listen.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: (Speaking Spanish).
GOTTLIEB: "Honestly, it's worrying," he says. "My wife and I are really shaken. Sometimes, we are trying to decide whether to go out and buy inventory or not. We're unsure." You know, he also told me that he has no choice but to work. This is the only way he supports his family, and both he and his wife are just worried they're putting themselves at risk by doing this.
CHANG: Right. Well, what did people tell you about what they are worrying about the most right now?
GOTTLIEB: Yeah, so it's not just the fact that there are ICE raids. Those happen in Los Angeles. But immigration advocates say more people are being deported in an expedited way. So they might get put on a plane before they have a chance to appeal to an immigration judge. One person I spoke with, who also did not want to be named out of fear of deportation, says he came to the U.S. three years ago from Cuba. His lawyer says he has a work permit and a pending asylum case, but he's afraid to go to work, go to court because he's scared he could get swept up in one of these raids and deported immediately.
And, you know, it's really important to note, immigrants without legal status are ubiquitous in Los Angeles. This is the largest county in the U.S., about 10 million people. Census data puts the immigrant population at about a third. And there are estimates that as many as 1 million people in LA County are in the country illegally. So these are our neighbors, employees, workers. There's lots of mixed-status families here.
CHANG: Could you very briefly tell us what business owners are telling you, people who rely on some of these people for their businesses?
GOTTLIEB: That's right. I walked into a juice bar that Jonathan Reyes and his family owns in Van Nuys. He says people no longer feel safe to go out, and they're just not coming to buy juice.
JONATHAN REYES: (Speaking Spanish).
GOTTLIEB: He says he's seen a 70% drop in business in just the last few months since the Trump administration began upping immigration enforcement. And he also told me that he had to throw away about $600 worth of product on Saturday because it all went bad. All businesses need to plan, he said, and that's just impossible to do right now.
CHANG: That is Benjamin Gottlieb. Thank you.
GOTTLIEB: You're welcome. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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