In Los Angeles, ICE raids are causing fear amongst the AAPI community, especially for those who are undocumented.
Business owners in Artesia’s Little India are reporting a significant decline in foot traffic due to the AAPI community’s concerns about immigration arrests.
Fox11 reports that this decline is largely attributed to an ICE raid at a local car wash last month.
Grocery store owner Sridher Aiyer told Fox11 that immigration agents showed up to his family-owned market to question whether his employees arrived legally. He told the agents that he had been in the States legally for over 20 years.
Rizloana Khan, owner of Decor Boutique, told Fox11, “We made it through COVID, but this is worse. Nobody is coming, everybody is afraid.”
South Asian Network advocates estimate that 15% of the Asian population in California is undocumented.
Community organizer Tonya Somesh told LAist that since U.S. citizens can also be arrested during raids, even immigrants with legal status are afraid of going out. She said, “They’re avoiding public places. They’re avoiding their ethnic grocery store because they’re aware that, ‘Hey, you know, it’s an ethnic spot.’”
Language barriers have led to concerns amongst civil rights lawyers that these immigrants will face increased difficulty in navigating the immigration system.
Connie Chung Joe, CEO of Asian Americans Advancing Justice-Southern California, said, “In general, ICE and federal agents don’t speak API languages, and they’re not being held accountable or responsible to make sure they can communicate with API immigrants.” She highlighted an online video in which a Mandarin-speaking man was detained and was not told in his language what was happening to him.
In the video, which went viral on TikTok, the man can be heard calling for help in Mandarin as he is being arrested by masked individuals driving unmarked vehicles.
ICE later confirmed to LAist that the man had been arrested outside of an Intensive Supervision Appearance Program office.
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