Kenner, Los Angeles — The doors to Carmela Diaz’s taco restaurant are closed, the tables are empty of customers and no one is working in the kitchen. It’s one of many once-thriving Hispanic businesses, from Nicaraguan restaurants to Honduran restaurants, that have emptied in recent weeks in neighborhoods with lots of Spanish-language signs but fewer people on the streets.
In the city of Kenner, which has the largest concentration of Hispanic residents in Louisiana, a federal immigration crackdown aimed at rounding up 5,000 people has devastated an economy already reeling from intense enforcement efforts this year, some business owners say, and has had far-reaching effects on both immigrants and U.S. citizens alike.
“Fewer and fewer people have been coming,” said a tearful Diaz, whose restaurant, Taqueria La Conquistadora, closed several weeks ago because customers and workers were afraid to leave their homes. “There were days when we didn’t sell anything. That’s why I made the decision to close the business — because there was no business.”
On Wednesday, convoys of federal vehicles began driving up and down Kenner’s main commercial streets, as the Department of Homeland Security began the latest in a series of immigration enforcement operations that have included surges in Los Angeles, Chicago and Charlotte, North Carolina. Bystanders posted videos of federal agents detaining people outside Kenner businesses and at construction sites.
Border Guard Commander Gregory Bovino He also appeared in the city, surrounded by agents wearing tactical gear, to announce to reporters the launch of the operation dubbed “Catahoula Crunch,” a name derived from the large hound, Louisiana’s state dog.
The state’s Hispanic population has boomed in the past two decades, with many arriving in the wake of Hurricane Katrina in 2005 to help rebuild. In Kenner, just west of New Orleans between the Mississippi River and Lake Pontchartrain, Hispanics make up about 30% of the population.
Diaz, who is from El Salvador, arrived in 2006 after years of agricultural work in Texas. She opened food trucks, earned enough to buy a house in Kenner, and has since expanded her business to include a fleet of trucks and two brick-and-mortar restaurants.
Almost all of this is closed at the moment due to the crackdown, and Diaz is struggling by making home deliveries to people who fear being searched by customers.
“They don’t respect anyone,” Diaz said. “They don’t ask for documents, they don’t investigate. They slap their hands and take them away.”
Federal agents have already made dozens of arrests, though the agency has not released a complete list of people in custody, spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin said Thursday.
“Americans should be able to live without fear of violent illegal aliens harming them, their families, or their neighbors,” McLaughlin said in a statement. “In just 24 hours on the ground, our law enforcement officers arrested violent criminals with allegation records including murder, kidnapping, child abuse, burglary, robbery and assault.”
The office of Mayor Michael Glaser, the former police chief, declined to comment on his position on the operation. But she said the campaign “falls within federal jurisdiction” and the mayor expects all agencies working in the city to act “professionally, lawfully and with respect for our community.” She also said the city “does not participate or advise” on the process.
However, city police are among hundreds of state and local law enforcement agencies across the country that have signed agreements to be part of Immigration and Customs Enforcement Program This allows them to hold detainees for possible deportation.
Sergio Perez, a Guatemalan immigrant and U.S. citizen who has lived in Kenner since 2010, said he has loved ones there who lack legal permission to be in the country and risk being detained or deported. He also worries that any Hispanic person is at risk of mistreatment by federal agents, regardless of their immigration status.
While Perez calls Kenner home — a place where favorites like caldo de res, a hearty beef and vegetable soup, are easy to find — he is prepared to leave the country if family members are deported.
“They don’t want us here,” Perez said. “It’s like you’re in someone’s home and you don’t feel welcome. They’re just killing our souls.”
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Klein reported from Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Associated Press writer Valerie Gonzalez in McAllen, Texas, contributed.
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Brock is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America It is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.