ICE raids begin to affect businesses in Florida: "We are not selling even half of what we used to sell."

Anti-immigrant raids in Florida have begun to impact local businesses, which are suffering not only from the lack of foreign workers but also from a decrease in customers.

In the southern part of the state, where Hispanics are crucial to the economy, the government's crackdown on illegal immigration is already affecting businesses, as both employees and customers are choosing not to leave their homes due to the risk of deportation.

This has occurred in the Homestead commercial district in Miami-Dade, where economic activity has fallen dramatically.

"It's as if people are afraid to go out. We are not selling even half of what we were selling a few months ago," lamented the owner Jennifer Leos to Telemundo 51.

Business owners participated in a protest on Saturday in front of the city hall against ICE raids, which affect not only undocumented individuals but also the families and communities that depend on them.

"People are not working out of fear. Businesses have not had sales because people are not going out; they are afraid," stated a local resident.

"The restaurants, all of them. On [Street] 6, people used to stand there asking for work, and now there's no one," another noted.

The recent ICE raids in South Florida are creating a climate of terror among the immigrant community and impacting key sectors of the local economy such as agriculture, construction, and healthcare, which rely heavily on foreign labor.

Although the government insists that deportations focus on "violent criminals," business owners claim that the collateral effects have impacted thousands of essential workers.

Rebeca Shi, executive director of the American Business Immigration Coalition, stated that "essential workers have disappeared, and we are seeing a 50% slowdown in our operations. Immigrants are paralyzed by fear and prefer to stay home."

The impact of the reduction of immigrant workers could also severely affect the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the United States.

According to Shi, immigrants make up between 25% and 50% of the workforce in essential industries and contribute over $80 billion in taxes each year.

Their absence could decrease GDP by 4.2%, in addition to worsening the labor shortage in sectors such as healthcare, construction, and manufacturing, which currently face a gap of 1.7 million jobs.

According to the ICE office in Miami, the crackdown is prioritizing criminals, but it could also result in the detention of individuals without criminal records who have deportation orders.

The White House made it clear that anyone without legal documentation can be deported: "If you are a person, a foreigner who enters the United States illegally, you are, by definition, a criminal, and therefore, you are subject to deportation," said White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt.

Impact of ICE Raids in Florida