Immigration raids turn Los Angeles produce market into a 'ghost town'

Juan Ibarra stood outside his produce stall in Los Angeles’ central wholesale market on Monday, surrounded by crates of unsold fruit. 

A workers take a rest at a produce food market in Los Angeles, California, U.S., June 16, 2025. REUTERS/Pilar Olivares Purchase Licensing Rights

Normally packed with restaurant buyers, street vendors, and food truck operators, the market was nearly deserted.

Following a wave of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids that began more than a week ago—including one just blocks from the market—Ibarra says his business has all but collapsed.

Many of his regular customers are now in hiding. Restaurant employees, fearful of arrest, are no longer venturing out to pick up supplies. And the majority of the market’s 300 undocumented workers have stopped coming to work altogether.

Ibarra, a U.S. citizen born to Mexican parents, usually makes about $2,000 a day at his shop, which sells grapes, pineapples, melons, and vegetables. But since the raids, he’s making around $300—on a good day. On Monday, for the first time since the crackdown began, he had to throw away rotting produce, paying $70 a pallet to dispose of it.

“It’s like a ghost town,” Ibarra said. “It feels like COVID all over again. People are terrified. If this continues, we won’t survive more than a few months.”

Ibarra’s story is just one of many in Los Angeles and across California, where business owners say President Donald Trump’s aggressive immigration policies are wreaking havoc on the local economy.

California’s economy is deeply tied to immigrant labor. One in three workers in the state is an immigrant, and 40% of business owners were born outside the U.S., according to the American Immigration Council.

Amid growing concern over economic fallout, the Trump administration recently ordered ICE to pause raids targeting sectors like agriculture, hospitality, and food service. But for many, the damage has already been done.

‘Worse Than COVID’ for Local Restaurants

Pedro Jimenez, 62, has run a Mexican restaurant in a working-class Hispanic neighborhood for 24 years. Business has plummeted by $7,000 a week in the past two weeks, he said, as terrified customers stay home.

A former undocumented immigrant himself, Jimenez became a U.S. citizen under a 1987 amnesty law signed by then-President Ronald Reagan. Now, he’s cutting hours and closing early—shutting his doors at 5 p.m. instead of 9 p.m. last weekend due to a lack of customers.

“This is really hurting everyone,” he said. “It’s terrible. It’s worse than COVID.”

According to Andrew Selee, president of the non-partisan Migration Policy Institute, the Trump administration initially focused on deporting individuals with criminal records. But the recent workplace raids mark a new chapter in enforcement—one that targets deeply integrated, hardworking immigrants.

“The broader and more indiscriminate the enforcement becomes, the greater the economic disruption,” Selee said.

Fear Spreads Across the City

Citywide, many immigrants are avoiding public spaces altogether.

Luis, a 45-year-old hot dog vendor from Guatemala, recounted how he and fellow street vendors fled the Santa Fe Springs swap meet over the weekend after hearing ICE agents were on-site.

Now, he says, he only goes out to work—and spends the rest of his time inside.

“This has been psychologically draining,” he said. “I need to work to survive, but I don’t feel safe anywhere else.”

Meanwhile, the situation has ignited protests across Los Angeles. In response, President Trump deployed National Guard troops and U.S. Marines to the city—against the wishes of California Governor Gavin Newsom.

White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson blamed “Democrat-led riots” for hurting small businesses, not federal enforcement efforts. “It’s the lawlessness created by liberal policies that’s doing the damage,” she told Reuters.

For business owners like Ibarra and Jimenez, though, the cause is clear: fear of immigration raids is emptying streets, stalling commerce, and endangering livelihoods.