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- An estimated 1 million people who are in the country without legal status work in the restaurant industry.
- Some food-service workers are no longer driving and instead are taking Uber to their restaurant jobs.
- Restaurants, cafes and bars are “super easy targets” for immigration raids, said immigration attorney Kim Luu-Ng.
The chilly first two months of the year are usually a peak business period for Teddy’s Red Tacos, where diners indulge in the restaurant’s specialty, birria — spicy, warm and deeply tender meat slowly braised in its own fat and served with a pool of flavorful broth.
But this year, it’s different.
The day after President Trump announced a series of immigration actions to fulfill a campaign promise of mass deportations, Teddy Vazquez, owner of Teddy’s Red Tacos, noticed a steep drop in sales at all of his 10 locations in Los Angeles and Orange County.
Two weeks later, sales had dropped by half of what he’d normally make in January.
“People are afraid to go out. There’s no movement. There are no people coming in to eat,” Vazquez said. “People don’t want to go out because they don’t know what is going to happen with this administration.”
Vazquez said most of his taco shops — from Echo Park to Anaheim — are in neighborhoods with a large proportion of immigrant inhabitants.
“A lot of people who support Teddy’s are immigrants,” he said. “Customers are thinking: ‘What if ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] shows up while I’m eating at Teddy’s?’”
Vazquez isn’t alone.
He’s one of several people in the food-service industry — from restaurateurs to back-of-the-house workers — who are bracing for the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown. Of an estimated 8.3 million workers without legal status who are employed the U.S., approximately 1 million have restaurant industry jobs, according to the Center for Migration Studies, an international migration think tank in New York.
President Trump’s plans for mass deportations has injected a sense of uncertainty and fear into L.A.’s large informal economy
Several restaurateurs are scrambling to create plans in case ICE descends on their business. Managers are calling staff meetings to inform workers of their constitutional rights. Owners are circulating red cards to their restaurant staff advising them to “not answer any questions” if approached by an immigration agent.
At the same time, several food-service workers reported that they stopped driving to work and instead are taking ride-shares to avoid being pulled over. A line cook said she no longer leaves her home in Santa Ana except for work. A dishwasher in the San Gabriel Valley wrote an email to his employer, confessing that he was in the country without legal status and asking his boss if he could help sponsor him for a “work permit.”
“It is known that there are millions of undocumented immigrants in this country, I am one more of them,” the dishwasher wrote. “When I started working with you almost 2 years ago, I never thought I would tell you this, and I apologize if this may cause you problems later or in the future.”
At a loss for what to do, the restaurant owner — who did not want to be identified because he’s afraid of being targeted by ICE — called Kim Luu-Ng, an immigration attorney who, with her husband, Bryant Ng, also operates Cassia, the celebrated Santa Monica restaurant that is closing Feb. 22 after being a regular presence on this paper’s 101 Best Restaurants in Los Angeles list and the 2019 L.A. Times Gold Award winner.
Luu-Ng met with the worker, a Mexican national in his 20s who has a young U.S. citizen child. He entered the U.S. four years ago without undergoing a formal inspection process at the border. She asked the worker a series of questions to determine whether there was a way for him to qualify for legal status.
There was none.
“Even though you have a very supportive employer, who is eager and willing to sponsor you, unfortunately, that cannot happen in this situation,” she told him, “Your employer cannot sponsor you. Unfortunately, there’s nothing I can do for you at this time.”
Luu-Ng said she’s gotten several calls in the last couple of weeks from restaurant owners and workers anxious about pending immigration enforcement actions.
There’s reason to worry, Luu-Ng said.
Restaurants, cafes and bars are “super easy targets” for immigration raids, she said, because there are so many of them. Also, ICE agents can legally enter public areas of a business, such as a dining room or waiting area of a restaurant without explicit permission.
“It provides good optics for the Trump administration,” she added.
Organizers said they have tracked 250 businesses nationwide that were closed Monday in solidarity with immigrants.
ICE agents cannot lawfully enter private areas without permission or a warrant signed by a state or federal judge. These private areas include backrooms, kitchens, offices or other areas of a business not generally open to the public.
Sometimes ICE agents will present administrative warrants with the heading “U.S. Department of Homeland Security” as evidence of their permission to enter private areas, but it doesn’t give agents the right to enter private areas without the consent of an authorized employer.
“A lot of times people don’t know their rights and people just let them in,” Luu-Ng said.
William Martel, a food runner from El Salvador, recently lost his job when his restaurant burned down in the L.A. fires last month. The 55-year-old has tried unsuccessfully to look for a new job closer to his home in a heavily immigrant neighborhood.
“There is nobody in the restaurants. There are no people in the shops,” he said. “So nobody is hiring new workers.”
Vazquez of Teddy’s Red Tacos said he has fielded multiple calls from employees who ask him questions about what they should do if they get pulled over on their way to work.
Some are so scared that they’re taking Uber to work.
Vazquez said he worries for his workers and also for the decline in business.
“I’ve got to cover my bills and my payroll,” he said. “If things continue to go like this, unfortunately, I’m going to have to cut people’s hours and maybe close down some locations, or I won’t be able to pay rent.”
Over the years — mostly in the late 1980s and early 1990s — Andy and Teddy Leonard sponsored about a dozen employees at the Reel Inn to become legal residents. It was easier to do back then, but immigration laws and policies have changed, with stricter eligibility requirements in place now.
Several of these employees fixed their legal status and still worked at the iconic seafood spot in Malibu until it burned down Jan. 7 in the Palisades fire. Teddy Leonard said most of her employees were immigrants from Oaxaca.
“I’ve not had one American kid say he wants to bus tables,” she said.
A couple weeks ago, the Leonards hosted lunch for their 23 Reel Inn employees. Though there is no longer a restaurant, Teddy Leonard said she still felt compelled to help protect her workers and distributed “know your rights” cards provided by the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles. She also passed out fliers detailing “5 Things To Do if ICE tries to enter your house or vehicle.”
“These sweeps could take away the labor force,” Teddy Leonard said. “It will shut down a lot of restaurants.”
Reyna, a line cook at a restaurant in Santa Ana, said she first moved to the U.S. more than 20 years ago. The 40-year-old, who is in the country without legal status, didn’t want to give her full name because she is afraid she will be targeted by immigration officials. Current immigration laws and policies don’t provide her with a way, she said, to legalize her status.
Still, she’s built a life here and started a family with her husband and six children, who are U.S. citizens — including an 18-month-old, a 3-year-old and a 6-year-old child who is autistic.
Since Trump’s inauguration, Reyna’s world has become smaller.
In the last few weeks, she’s held off taking her children to the park. A devout Catholic, she has stopped attending Mass. She no longer picks up or drops off her children from school. She doesn’t shop for groceries
Instead, her adult children — particularly her 21-year-old son and teen daughter — are taking on those tasks.
“I only go to work and come back home,” she said of her daily routine.
On Sundays, she and her family had a tradition of dining at a local restaurant in Santa Ana. No more.
She tries to put on a good face to protect her children.
“Don’t worry, “ she tells them. “Aside from coming here illegally, I’ve never committed a crime.”
Still, the anxiety keeps her teen daughter from getting a full night’s sleep.
Recently, her adult children installed a Ring camera so they can monitor who comes to the door, just in case it’s immigration agents.
Reyna believes the camera is a bit much.
But at the same time, she’s making preparations for what will happen to her children, in case she’s deported.
“Honestly,” she said, “this fear is killing me.”
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