Latino businesses in Los Angeles struggling amid surging federal immigration enforcement

The surging U.S. immigration crackdown since 2025 has negatively impacted Latino businesses in Los Angeles, home to the country's biggest Hispanic population, where increases in federal arrests of migrants have led to fewer customers and lower sales.

Teodoro Cuevas, a Mariachi musician who has come to the Mariachi Plaza in Boyle Heights -- a cultural hub for Los Angeles' Latino community -- to play music for 25 years, is one of many workers and business owners feeling the effects of a major expansion in immigration enforcement.

"There used to be a lot of people here. The mariachis were here, dressed and ready to work every day. The work isn't the same anymore," he said.

Federal immigration arrests nationwide reached nearly 51,000 in August, a record for a third consecutive month.

In Los Angeles County, business owners say greater enforcement has spread fear through Latino neighborhoods.

A study by the Latino Policy and Politics Institute at University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) found the June 2025 Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids led to 46,000 fewer customer visits and more than 3 million U.S. dollars in estimated losses near nine immigration enforcement sites in the two weeks after the operations, including the Fashion District, an iconic commercial and cultural landmark of Downtown Los Angeles.

"Before, there were so many people you could barely walk. Now, there's more space and fewer people," said Eric Vaquero, a fabric store worker.

Leonardo Crespo, owner of a restaurant in Boyle Heights, said he used to serve about 100 customers a day, but the figure is now closer to 20 in some days.

"The concern about other people, it's just getting hauled in, because you look a certain way. That's it. It doesn't matter. I had my mother telling me. 'You should carry your birth certificate.' I said I'm not going to do that," he said.

Those concerns are not limited to undocumented immigrants. A ProPublica investigation documented more than 170 U.S. citizens held by immigration agents in the first nine months of 2025.

At least 53 people died in ICE custody between the beginning of President Donald Trump's second term on January 20, 2025 and mid-July 2026, according to a joint report by Human Rights Watch and Physicians for Human Rights.

"So, if you are a Hispanic person that even was born in the U.S., a citizen, you may be scared of going out, because ICE has big pressure to detain people, and they are known for being hostile. So you actually fear for your life or safety or think 'I don't want to be detained.' Right?" said Julio Sevilla, a professor at University of Georgia.

Latino businesses in Los Angeles struggling amid surging federal immigration enforcement

Students across Iran are preparing to return to their classrooms for a new school year. But in the southern city of Minab, where more than 160 pupils and teachers were killed by a U.S. missile strike on February 28, the pain and trauma of loss remain.

Standing at the site of the destroyed Shajarah Tayyebeh elementary school, Yasin, a student who survived the strike, recounted what he saw on the day the missile struck.

"When the sound of the explosion came, we came out of that section and through that door. As we went out, we saw everyone was covered in blood. One held his eye in his hand, another's neck was broken and blood was coming out. I saw one person who was hit by shrapnel here. Everyone was crying and running," said Yasin.

Yasin survived the attack but some of his closest friends did not.

"Amir Mohammad Bagheri was my close friend. He became a martyr. That day, he was standing right here, and I said to him, 'Come on, let's go and take the food container.' He said, 'Yeah,' so we went. But he went out through the hall. I went to pick up my food and came back. When I woke up in the morning, I read the news and saw that he had been martyred," said Yasin.

Months later, Yasin's mother said the attack had left Yasin under intense psychological pressure, and without the excitement he once had for school.

"He has absolutely no enthusiasm or passion for the new school year. He doesn’t say at all 'buy me shoes, buy me a bag for school.' I told him 'come and study,' and he said 'Forget it. I know it. My teacher taught me.' His teacher, of course, was martyred. He has become terribly nervous and aggressive. Whatever he has in his hand, he smashes it against his head. The children who survived the attack are very psychologically devastated, not just Yasin, all of them," said Yasin's mother.

For the new school year, many survivors including Yasin will be transferred to a temporary building to continue their education.

Minab city officials are now building a new school near the old one. Perhaps it will be bigger and better than the one that once stood there. But the pain of what happened there will never leave those who survived the deadly airstrike.

"We miss our friends. New friends will come to our school. We all study together. We learn knowledge. We continue on the path of our friends. I am not the only survivor; there are many others. Our friends are studying in heaven, while we are studying here on Earth," said Yasin.

Students in Iran's Minab endure pain, trauma of war as new school year begins