In July, agents from the Department of Homeland Security raided a popular Asia Food Market outside Buffalo, New York. They seized computers, cell phones, and business records, and detained nine employees, according to immigration attorney Alejandro Gutierrez who represents the workers.
“Officers from several agencies showed up to arrest anybody they found in the place, even people who had valid work permits,” Gutierrez told Retail Brew. He added that out of the nine detained, only two were released from custody as of September 16.
Earlier this year, White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller reportedly set a quota for US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents to arrest at least 3,000 every day, tripling the previous quota, and the tactics agents have used have drawn criticism for their aggression.
According to the Center for Migration Studies, the US workforce is made up of 8.5 million undocumented workers and around 8% work in retail trade. Raids appearing to target larger businesses with immigrant workforces, like the supermarkets Asia Food Market, are making news.
“Homeland Security might want to make a bigger impact, and that’s why they might be looking at a bigger supermarket…as opposed to a deli in Midtown that may have 15 employees or 20 employees and is not necessarily going to make a big impact for deterrence value,” Vivianna Morales, a partner in Pechman Law Group who represents both employers and employees, but not Asia Food Market or any of the detained workers from the July Buffalo raid, told Retail Brew.
These operations’ impact on retailers and retail workers is still unclear.
The Department of Homeland Security did not provide data about the number of retail-related actions this year when Retail Brew reached out.
While “losing the workers is expensive,” Gutierrez said, the Asia Food Market in Buffalo remains open.
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Indirect impact: That isn’t always the case in communities targeted by ICE. Yue Wa Market, one of the few remaining markets in Los Angeles’s bustling Chinatown, shuttered in September, and the LA Times reported the raids were responsible for an environment of fear dampening demand from locals.
A produce market in nearby downtown LA also saw a decline in foot traffic following raids earlier this summer, as both workers and customers steered clear out of fear of possible detainment.
One South Florida-based business, PANNA New Latino Food, reported in July that over the previous three months, demand had fallen 20% due to fear surrounding the Trump administration’s revocation of temporary protected status (TPS) for immigrants from Venezuela, the largest population of TPS migrants in the country.
Javier Palomarez, president and CEO of the US Hispanic Business Council, said the impact of these ICE raids is twofold: There are actual removals, and then there is the fear they create. “The fear is leading to lower sales among Hispanics and in brands that we all recognize and use.”
- Coca-Cola, Colgate-Palmolive, Constellation Brands, for example, have blamed falling sales on a drop-off in demand from Hispanic shoppers.
Palomarez said there have been significant declines in revenue at stores serving immigrant communities such as Pilsen, Illinois, outside of Chicago, and the Rio Grande Valley in south Texas, “because the foot traffic has all but disappeared” in those areas.
Direct impact: However, the direct impact of detaining workers could end up being significant as well. Though industry-level data is lacking, the Pew Research Center found that the number of immigrant workers in the US, including both legal residents and the undocumented, has fallen by 1.2 million between January and July.