The owner of an Inglewood furniture store laid off his staff after a forced immigration crackdown last summer and says he’s now working twice as hard to make half as much as he used to.
The restaurant owner lost $20,000 in canceled catering contracts last summer, as the county sweep coincided with the summer holiday season.
A stockbroker who made up to $1,500 a week on Saturdays and Sundays before the attack and now only makes up to $500.
“The Latino customers have disappeared. Some have been deported, some have fired,” said the swap meet seller, who was identified only by a pseudonym. “I only have customers who were born here.”
Those were just some of the stories drawn from a new study from the UCLA Latino Policy & Politics Institute, in partnership with Inclusive Action for the City, which focuses on the long-term impact of immigration enforcement on small businesses and Latino entrepreneurs in Los Angeles County after the June 2025 immigration raid.
The report, published Wednesday, takes a closer look at how forced labor has affected commercial activity near nine forced labor sites and the experiences of 75 Latino entrepreneurs across the state.
The researchers found that there were 46,000 fewer customer visits between legitimate businesses within half a mile of the nine sites and an estimated $3.16 million in lost revenue within two weeks of the enforcement action.
The study’s authors estimated that their findings of excessive circumcision nationwide could represent as much as $114 million in monthly law enforcement losses.
“Latino businesses have not recovered. These businesses serve as local economic engines. They hire neighbors, buy from local suppliers, and keep money circulating in their communities,” said Amada Armenta, the center’s director and co-author of the report, in a news release. “When the law fires customers and their employees, the damage extends to the health, welfare and safety of entire communities.”
Latino entrepreneurs who participated in focus groups and surveys described fewer customers, reduced operating hours, canceled orders, employee disruptions, depleted savings and accumulated debt. Nearly a year later, 95% continued to report financial stress, the researchers found, with 52% of participants saying their income no longer covered operating expenses. An additional 43% of participants reported breaking even with little or no profit.
According to the report, a mobile food vendor consolidated three retail locations into one, and a hair salon owner consolidated two locations to help reduce rent and costs. A churro cart vendor who had operated in South Los Angeles for more than a decade stopped selling for six weeks in the high sweep, losing about $5,000. Others explained that they were preparing to relocate or close altogether.
“I never asked myself how long I live until recently, I never thought that my shop would not be a shop,” said one respondent. “The climate of everything is hopeless.”
The researchers also found that 76% of participants reported that law enforcement affected their well-being. They described dealing with panic, anxiety, depression, stomach upsets and other stress-related illnesses.
According to the report, the owner of the health shop said he returned to drinking alcohol after not drinking, because he felt helpless and unable to control himself during the law.
The street vendor said she and her husband had barely worked for five months. As their savings were running out, he said, it caused so much stress that he became paralyzed on his face.
Nicholas Vargas, an associate professor at UC Berkeley and one of the study’s co-authors, said the researchers didn’t want to analyze the mental health impact but it came up again and again.
“We felt we should include it in our report,” he said. “Immigrant raids impose costs on more than the intended population.”
