The raids have had sweeping impacts on specific local economies, such as downtown L.A.\u2019s Fashion District and the areas of Lynwood, Bell and Pico Rivera, rendering neighborhoods<\/a> ghost towns for stretches, with businesses shuttered and customers scarce.<\/p>\n Few sites, however, became such frequent battlegrounds as the parking lots of Home Depots, where day laborers congregate, or were hit as persistently and severely as the open air car washes that dot sunny Southern California.<\/p>\n More than 370 workers were picked up at some 100 car washes across Los Angeles and Orange counties in the last year, according to CLEAN Carwash Worker Center, a labor advocacy nonprofit that tracks raids through community reports, social media footage, and worker outreach.<\/p>\n Mario and his wife, who declined to be identified, gather with other car wash workers and their families Monday for a tribute to detained workers that was organized by the CLEAN Car Wash Worker Center.<\/p>\n (Suhauna Hussain \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n Mario and a few dozen other car wash workers have been able to secure their release, but most of his peers remain detained or have been deported. He mostly stays at home with an ankle monitor, where his wife and three adult children frequently check on him. <\/p>\n He describes his two months in detention as the most \u201chumiliating\u201d of his life. At first he was made to sleep on a cold floor without blankets, he recalls. He and others would help a detainee with a head injury who was unable to get up to take meals.<\/p>\n Immigration sweeps hit some car washes repeatedly, as many as three or four times, during what is typically the industry\u2019s peak season. There was a lull when a judge restricted the aggressive tactics, concluding they were racist and unconstitutional, but sweeps surged again in the fall when the U.S. Supreme Court lifted those restrictions.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen raids were at their worst they didn\u2019t only take workers. They took customers, they took owners,\u201d said Flor Melendrez, executive director of CLEAN. \u201cThey were taking anyone.\u201d<\/p>\n Interviews with industry workers, owners and labor advocates show that staffing at car washes that were hit by multiple raids has dried up considerably, both because of difficulty attracting labor to a physically strenuous, and now dangerous, job \u2014 and because businesses now simply can\u2019t afford payroll.<\/p>\n At least 7 out of the 100 or so car washes hit in the region in the last year, according to a Times review, have closed. Others have been listed for sale or have cut back on labor, renovating and adding machinery to soap and scrub as well as self-serve vacuum stations. Some hit only once, by contrast, have been able to recover.<\/p>\n Kyle Harvick, head of U.S. Customs and Border Patrol\u2019s El Centro Sector, defended raids on businesses including car washes last year, stating in a court declaration<\/a> that they \u201chave been selected for encounters because past experiences have demonstrated that illegal aliens utilize and seek work at these locations.\u201d<\/p>\n Mehmet Aydogan, owner of Westchester Hand Wash, which was hit by raids on consecutive days last June and had 12 employees taken (with four later released), said he checks immigration enforcement monitoring websites each morning the same way he checks the weather. He has taken out a loan and has credit card debt totaling about $100,000, he said. <\/p>\n His skilled staff with decades of experience washing cars has disappeared. He estimates he\u2019s hired about 100 people in the last year to battle worker turnover. The car wash used to employ about 15 people. It now operates with five, he said.<\/p>\n A worker cleans the interior of a car at Westchester Hand Wash.<\/p>\n (Christina House \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n \u201cI have now hired an 18-year-old girl. We\u2019ve never had that before,\u201d Aydogan said. \u201cWe have no other choice.\u201d<\/p>\n In an industry already known for wage theft<\/a> and other labor violations, some longtime employees report diminished hours and growing workloads, forced to compensate for new hires \u2014 all while they struggle with deep psychological wounds.<\/p>\n An employee at a car wash in Santa Ana, who asked that his name and place of work be withheld, had nightmares for days after a raid, and he still freezes up when cars with tinted windows appear. New security protocols were later implemented \u2014 for example, having an employee posted at the entrance to watch for agents. But measures have lapsed in recent months. <\/p>\n The car wash used to employ 30 to 35 workers, the worker said. Only about 10 original staffers remain, plus about 10 new hires who cycle in and out. One of his former co-workers now instead helps his wife with housekeeping work, while at least two simply stay home, living off their savings and odd jobs, he said.<\/p>\n \u201cThe reality is people don\u2019t want to work at car washes anymore,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Unions and advocacy groups have responded to the enforcement surge by organizing \u201cKnow Your Rights\u201d trainings and community patrols to watch for federal agents. Volunteers and paid canvassers have traversed neighborhoods on foot to talk to local businesses. <\/p>\n![\"Mario](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/1781437390_284_.jpeg\")
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