Brandon Mejia typically enjoys his weekends organizing vibrant 909Tacolandia pop-up events, where over a hundred vendors serve a delightful mix of cuisines including pupusas, huaraches, and an extensive array of tacos.
These events, a hybrid of food festival and swap meet, occur twice a week in Pomona and San Bernardino, providing a much-needed platform for street food vendors to operate legally.
The setup not only offers customers delicious food options from Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua but also gives vendors a stable venue while allowing cities to benefit from tax revenue and enforce health regulations.
However, the atmosphere has drastically shifted in recent weeks.
The Trump administration’s intensified immigration raids throughout California have instilled fear in many vendors, prompting some to go into hiding.
Consequently, Mejia made the difficult decision to cancel all Tacolandia events last week, fearing that the presence of federal agents could endanger his vendors.
Videos circulating on social media depict disturbing scenes of street vendors, farm workers, and others disappearing during immigration enforcement actions in Los Angeles and Ventura County.
“A lot of these vendors, their goal is to have restaurants.
They want to follow the rules,” said Mejia, who has roots in Mexico City.
Yet after discussions with the vendors he works with, they collectively concluded that the risk was too significant.
Some vendors reported that their family members had been taken by immigration authorities, and Mejia could not bear the thought of being responsible for putting anyone in harm’s way.
As mass protests occurred alongside the raids targeting various communities, Mejia and others in the industry remained on edge.
For many small food businesses, the choice between reopening and staying closed is fraught with uncertainty, especially as hunger looms closer to home for their families.
This crisis emerges amid an already challenging period for California’s restaurant industry, which is grappling with rising costs for ingredients, labor, rent, and regulatory frameworks.
The Los Angeles Times found that over 100 iconic restaurants closed last year alone, well before the onset of the immigration raids, which industry leaders warn could compound the difficulties faced by the sector.
In total, California’s food and restaurant industry employed roughly 1.42 million people as of April, and the repercussions of these developments are being felt across the workforce.
This includes nearly 600,000 individuals working in full-service restaurants, many of whom could be affected irrespective of their immigration status.
Jot Condie, the president of the California Restaurant Association, referred to immigrant workers as “the lifeblood of our industry.”
Confusion reigns regarding President Trump’s immigration policies.
In a social media post late last week, he remarked that aggressive immigration enforcement was creating workforce shortages in critical sectors like farming and hospitality, suggesting a potential halt to most raids in those industries.
However, those exceptions were quickly retracted.
“The President has been incredibly clear,” stated Tricia McLaughlin, Assistant Secretary for the Department of Homeland Security.
She emphasized that immigrants harboring criminals would not find safe spaces, reiterating that worksite enforcement remains a priority.
When CalMatters inquired whether the raids would specifically target individuals with criminal records, no response was provided by the agency.
“I’m following it step-by-step,” Mejia said regarding the administration’s changing directives.
“I fall under those categories—hospitality and restaurants.
But what scares me is that he mentioned targeting major cities like LA, Chicago, and New York.
I don’t know what I’m going to do.”
In Pasadena, a food truck owner expressed similar concerns about trust in the President’s statements.
Adriana Gomez Salazar, who immigrated to the U.S. from Mexico at the age of four and has been a legal worker under the DACA program, was forced to shut down her food truck, LA Cajun Seafood Boil, not once but twice—first due to January fires and then again amid the uncertainty created by the raids.
Customer traffic dwindled as many stayed home out of fear of ICE operations, prompting her to pivot towards catering jobs and initiate a GoFundMe campaign to support herself and her displaced employee.
“I don’t know how long I’m going to be shut down for,” Salazar lamented.
While Trump has hinted at a possible pause in ICE raids, his past comments about wanting to orchestrate significant mass deportations contribute to fear among those in the community.
Meanwhile, in Wilmington, residents witnessed their farmers market close down as ICE activity heightened.
The market’s organizers explained, “Due to increased ICE activity in Wilmington, many of our farmers are scared and have chosen not to attend… We do hope to one day reopen… but for now, we must step away.”
Across California, similar accounts of anxiety persist.
In San Diego, the restaurant Buona Forchetta confirmed experiencing a “traumatic raid” that necessitated a brief closure.
The Bay Area has also seen restaurant owners and industry groups bracing for potential impacts stemming from the raids.
Some owners are actively educating their employees about their rights in anticipation of possible ICE encounters.
At a Mexican restaurant located in the historically Latino Mission District in San Francisco, an anonymous owner has instructed employees on how to respond if federal agents enter the premises.
He has even put up signs designating an “employees only” zone, where staff are supposed to feel safe and private.
His employees are trained to ensure that agents present proper warrants and to memorize identifying details to facilitate future documentation if necessary.
Despite adhering to necessary hiring procedures, he cannot confirm the immigration status of all his workers.
“I don’t want to assume anyone’s undocumented,” he clarified.
In a report from the Migration Policy Institute, it was estimated that over 250,000 undocumented immigrants worked within California’s accommodation and food services, arts, entertainment, and recreation sectors in 2019.
Condie highlighted the California Restaurant Association’s efforts to partner with the National Restaurant Association to advocate for comprehensive immigration reform.
This reform includes pathways to legalization for undocumented workers and the establishment of a temporary worker visa program.
Conversely, the Golden Gate Restaurant Association, representing around 800 members primarily in San Francisco, is focused on providing valuable information to mitigate community anxiety.
“This fear is really causing stress on families, workers, and also on customers,” stated Laurie Thomas, the association’s executive director.
The potential repercussions for workers and business owners—both immediate and long-term—are pressing as the fear of raids continues.
Beyond the strain on personal lives, the possibility of protests against these immigration enforcement actions introduces additional uncertainty for restaurants, which already operate on thin profit margins.
Laurie Thomas is vigilantly tracking the evolving directives issued by the Trump administration, noting that without clarity regarding ongoing actions, heightened stress levels will persist within the community.
Despite the pervasive anxiety, some restaurateurs remain resolute in their commitment to serve their communities.
In Long Beach, El Barrio Cantina’s chef and owner Ulises Pineda-Alfaro chose to continue operating his establishment, envisioning it as a sanctuary where patrons can momentarily escape the troubling realities surrounding them.
He even established a campaign wherein, for $13, customers could buy a meal that directly supports local immigrant rights organizations, with all proceeds going to Órale.
Pineda-Alfaro noted, “The hospitality industry, the backbone of it, is mainly made by immigrants.
My dad was an immigrant until he got his citizenship.
It hits close to home.”
An Instagram post promoting the special garnered over 50,000 views, and on the day of the event, a dozen patrons eagerly waited outside as other businesses struggled with decreased foot traffic.
“I have seen some vendors and other restaurants closing early or not opening at all,” he reflected.
“We’re embedded in the community, hence our name.
We’re going to remain open.”
image source from：cbs8
