JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2014 As ICE presence in our area has ramped up this week, business has gone way down for one local Jacksonville Latin Restaurant.<\/p>\n
\u201cNormally, we have at least half of the restaurant full for lunch and it\u2019s just been one person here and there,\u201d the restaurant owner told Action News Jax.<\/p>\n
The owner asked for her and her business to remain anonymous, out of fear they could end up being targeted by immigration agents.<\/p>\n
At 1 PM, her restaurant had only one table with two customers.<\/p>\n
She said it\u2019s been like that since ICE operations began ramping up Tuesday, especially with Hispanic businesses being targeted.<\/p>\n
>>> STREAM ACTION NEWS JAX LIVE <<<<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve heard a lot of people, oh they went to this other restaurant and they detained four employees. They detained customers,\u201d said the owner. \u201dThey went into another place in front of another Latin business and detained another person.\u201d<\/p>\n She said even though her employees are here legally, there\u2019s a constant atmosphere of fear, and she feels it too.<\/p>\n \u201cI am an American citizen, but I am afraid,\u201d said the owner. \u201dSo, imagine somebody who, even though they are here legally, but they\u2019re not, you know, I guess it\u2019s just that immigrant mentality that I\u2019m gonna do something wrong or I\u2019m doing something wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n She said she believes it doesn\u2019t have to be this way, and the constant barrage of messaging on social media isn\u2019t helping.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s just instilling fear and I think that\u2019s wrong,\u201d said the owner.<\/p>\n [DOWNLOAD: Free Action News Jax app for alerts as news breaks<\/a>]<\/p>\n For community members, she is asking them to be brave, step up and help businesses like hers in these difficult times because the economic impact is taking a toll.<\/p>\n \u201cNext week, I\u2019m like okay, I might not be able to open the hours I normally open. I might have to reduce hours. That means I have to cut employees,\u201d said the owner. \u201dSo, it\u2019s affecting not just the finances of the business but the finances of all of the employees that I have working for us and all of the families.\u201d<\/p>\n And the owner told us none of her employees have been arrested or detained by ICE, nor has her business been the subject of a raid.<\/p>\n But unless fears in the community tamper down, she worries her business is likely to continue to suffer.,<\/p>\n [SIGN UP: Action News Jax Daily Headlines Newsletter<\/a>] <\/p>\n Click here<\/a> to download the free Action News Jax news and weather apps, click here<\/a> to download the Action News Jax Now app for your smart TV and click here<\/a> to stream Action News Jax live.<\/p>\n Action News Jax Top Stories<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2014 As ICE presence in our area has ramped up this week, business has gone way…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":122224,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[982,1877,969,116,118,117,971,970,44784,634,115,9280,6176,628],"class_list":{"0":"post-122223","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-jacksonville","8":"tag-action_news","9":"tag-ice","10":"tag-jack","11":"tag-jacksonville","12":"tag-jacksonville-headlines","13":"tag-jacksonville-news","14":"tag-jake","15":"tag-jake_stoan","16":"tag-jake_stofan","17":"tag-local","18":"tag-news","19":"tag-northeast_florida","20":"tag-south_bank","21":"tag-us"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122223","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=122223"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122223\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/122224"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=122223"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=122223"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=122223"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}