When Mario Ramos pushes his ice cream through the city, he is concerned with his mind.
Ramos, a street vendor for 20 years in Los Angeles, is now carrying a small red card that outlines his constitutional rights if he approaches immigration officials as part of President Trump Vow to be deported by mass. He is looking for news about enforcement activities, and he has even reduced the time he spends on the streets to control his expression.
“The street sales community is shivering,” said Ramos. “This is the era of fear for us.”
Ramos, 52, in the United States, illegally, who have no official work recognition among the migrants in the region, instead of finding jobs in a vast informal economy. Often for money and under the minimum wage, their labor has become an economic linpin, including jobs such as child care, including child care, Care For the elderly, construction and harvesting, preparation and selling food.
“People forget how important the unpredictable labor power is in the economy of our state,” said Manuel Pastor, director of the USC's Stock Research Institute who has long researched migrant labor.
“Which part of your daily life is not communicated with an unpredictable person. Do you know?” The pastor asked. “Did you get food today? Did your house come to the cleaner? ”
According to the most recent data of California migrant data, labor and financial influences are particularly pronounced in La County, which contributed $ 18 billion to the economy in local, state and federal taxes. Portal, a project of the USC Stock Research Institute.
If Trump is doing large -scale deportation, Pastor said that it would drastically change the social cloth of a region, where 1 of 5 people are not documented or living with a family member. He said it would create significant obstacles in industries such as construction and food preparation and service, and eventually lead to more expenses for consumers.
A Welder is building a car in the food truck group at Silmer on Friday. The company helps rent food trucks and carts and get permission for vendors.
(Miyung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)
“Eaton Canyon and Polystes are very difficult to rebuild from the fire,” he said. “Your prices are going to rise in the grocery store. This will be the opposite of cheap eggs. ”
The consequences of the broad economic ripple, the pastor said, would be far away.
“Every software engineer or entertainment industry lawyer is behind the nunnas and food service workers and gardeners,” said Pastor. “They may not see mutual dependence, but it is the reality of life in our economy.”
Although the actual amount of exile is to be found, especially called sanctuaries such as LA, which is called Prohibits The Trump administration has already taken up an aggressive position, including city employees or resources moving towards federal immigration enforcement To cancel the policy It prohibited the arrest of immigrant agents in hospitals, schools and churches.
The cold effect has already begun.
Since he is illegally in the country, colleagues have begun to change the news of warning, including the construction worker Rodrigo, who asked only to identify with his first name, including specific impulses to seek ice immigration agents outside the home depot.
“Fear is sown,” he said.
The 64 -year -old, who came to the United States about four decades ago, runs a small construction company that is working on electric, plumbing and carpenter. In recent weeks, his six employees, Kwathamala, Guatemala, Mexico and El Salvador, have come to all come in recent years, saying they are afraid of going to some parts of work.
“We are going to San Clemente today,” he recently told the workers.
“I didn't go there,” a worker told him. “There is more immigration.”
He tries to calm their nerves, but also reminds you of behaving cautiously – if you are going to drink, Rodrigo tells them and do it at home. Although they have not made any mistake, a boy who was drunk in the bar warns that he could throw stabs and drag the police into the place, and he worries that anyone who has been detained for any reason can quickly deport anyone.
For now, Rodrigo said, he is not personally very afraid of him-he takes the waiting attitude. But to be cautious, he said that he would avoid going to Texas or Arizona, and he was expecting severe oppression.
“But with work, I don't really have time to travel anyway,” he said, expecting the business to get the business soon after the wildfire.
Kimberly Tabia, along with her mother Maria Bones, started the Food Truck Group, which helps a la company to rent food trucks Street vendors get permissionHe said fears of deportation have already begun to change the company's demands.
This grill cart in the food truck group in Chilmar has health permission to handle raw meat. The company is run by Maria Bones and daughter Kimberly Tabia.
(Miyung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)
The business has recently seen the arrival of new customers who want to get permission to avoid attention from immigration agents and the trade recently from the current customers who want to trade in their food carts, so approach the case agents.
Tabia said, “The permits” prefer the ability to lock the door and do not feel the lid and carry it. ” “Because of the color of their skin, they are worried that someone will play. They say I don't care if you are allowed or not.”
Ramos, the ice cream seller, said that a crawling for him and his fellow vendors has become a standard. The beginning of Trump's second term feels differently than his first, especially the Republicans now control both the congregation and the Senate.
“There is a lot of fear to not return home and to know that my children will listen, 'Where is Dad? He never returned. ” “I want people to know that it is four years of fear, four years of uncertainty.
This has created a painful barrier for a work that Ramos has passed for years.
He began to sell ice cream many years ago, and he saw this as a way of bringing the taste of his first house in Bubla, Mexico to his newcomers and many vendors in LA, and he is proud to be an entrepreneur.
“We are not waiting for work. We start our businesses and pay our taxes, ”he said. “How much we contribute to the economy or they are missing the tax we pay.
“If we do not agree, they always know that we are good for this country.
