\u201cI have a responsibility to document and expose what the Trump administration is doing to the small business economy, and the findings are devastating,\u201d Markey told The Light. \u201cAnd New Bedford is exactly the kind of community where Trump\u2019s damage is deepest.\u201d<\/p>\n
The report showed damaging economic trends in areas hard hit by immigration enforcement operations. Dine-in restaurant sales fell by as much as 60% in Chicago during Operation Midway Blitz. Small businesses lost $81 million in revenue in Minneapolis after Operation Metro Surge. And federal immigration enforcement operations in Orange County, California, resulted in approximately $58.9 million in lost economic output over an eight-week period.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIn Massachusetts at large, 31% of small businesses say that immigration enforcement has impacted them,\u201d Markey said. \u201cOver 40% of Latino owned businesses in the state say that they have been impacted, and ICE presence has made the staff afraid to go to work, causing labor shortages and lost revenue.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cBut that damage isn\u2019t just limited to New Bedford or the South Coast.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The impact of uncertainty<\/p>\n
Immigration enforcement operations that have detained at least 70 people in New Bedford have recently eased, a result of the less aggressive stance taken by the administration after the deaths of Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis at the hands of ICE and U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents. Most local immigration arrests in recent months have occurred at New Bedford District Court<\/a> as people attend their civil or criminal hearings.\u00a0<\/p>\n But Massachusetts was also the first state to experience surges. Nearly 3,000 immigrants were arrested in Operation Patriot<\/a> in May 2025 and Operation Patriot 2.0 in September 2025. The stochastic nature of the arrests is something immigrant consumers, and the businesses that serve them, have not forgotten.<\/p>\n \u201cThe first impact has been the uncertainty,\u201d said Anthony Sapienza, president of the board of directors at the New Bedford Economic Development Council. Business owners have told him that the fear manifests itself in workers suddenly not showing up to work, he said.<\/p>\n He pointed to the dozens of fish processing plants near and in the Port of New Bedford where hundreds of largely Central American workers\u00a0work. Employers and employees worry that a big raid will happen at such a plant.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe haven\u2019t had any particularly obnoxious raids at a company but sometimes it\u2019s one or two people not showing up,\u201d Sapienza said. \u201cSometimes they\u2019ve been picked up, sometimes it\u2019s just they\u2019ve determined they\u2019re at risk and choose not to come in. But the fear that there will be some kind of raid is real.\u201d<\/p>\n Sapienza said that more solid economic data on the local impacts of immigration enforcement have been harder to track with academics, advocates, and business owners relying on anecdotal evidence to gauge conditions. Nonetheless, reporting by The Light has revealed noticeable impacts.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople are scared. And when they\u2019re scared that affects us. There isn\u2019t as much money on this street these days.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2014 Taqueria La Raza owner Tony Cabrera on how his business is impacted<\/p>\n Tony Cabrera, owner of Taqueria La Raza on Acushnet Avenue, told The Light last September<\/a> that business had dropped 50% due to aggressive immigration enforcement operations throughout the area. Since then, \u201cThings haven\u2019t changed,\u201d he said in Spanish during a recent interview<\/p>\n \u201cPeople are scared. And when they\u2019re scared that affects us,\u201d Cabrera said. \u201cThere isn\u2019t as much money on this street these days.\u201d<\/p>\n The U.S. Senate business report also found that job creation is being impacted, citing an Economic Policy Institute paper<\/a> which found that, if the administration reached its 4 million deportation goal, there would be 3.3 million fewer employed immigrants and 2.6 million fewer employed U.S. citizens.<\/p>\n \u201cIn Massachusetts, only 2% of those arrested during the September 2025 surge had violent criminal convictions,\u201d Markey said. \u201cThey\u2019re not rounding up dangerous criminals. They\u2019re rounding up nursing assistants, restaurant workers, dishwashers, landscapers, construction workers, home health aides. \u2026 The people who keep small businesses open and local economies running.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n A sense of safety<\/p>\n Those closest to the immigrant community said the solution to the economic anxiety is simple: make communities feel safe.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re talking about working people, not criminals,\u201d Ord\u00f3\u00f1ez said. \u201cThese are people working and contributing as much to the community as for their families.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe need immigration reform,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Sapienza said governments should focus on creating a sense of safety as a means to help local businesses. Initiatives by the state such as a recent executive order<\/a> prohibiting the use of state property for immigration enforcement by federal agencies and the PROTECT Act<\/a> making its way through Beacon Hill came to mind.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe should hold federal officials accountable about any violent behavior when they\u2019re in town,\u201d he said. \u201cCertainly we should be supportive of what the state has implemented.\u201d<\/p>\n Markey said he supported the PROTECT Act as well. The legislation recently passed by the House would prohibit civil immigration arrests at state courthouses, require employers to notify employees of I-9 audits<\/a>, and limit the ability of state and local agencies from entering into 287(g) partnerships<\/a> with ICE.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s absolutely imperative that we move in that direction,\u201d he said, \u201cto lift that chilling effect, that cloud, which has been built over the immigrant community as they comply with the law. Because ultimately, that effect will spread to Main Street.\u201d<\/p>\n Markey also pointed to legislation he has put forward in the U.S. Senate, such as the Small Business ICE Disruption Act<\/a>, introduced in December. Should it become law, the bill would create a $200 million fund that would provide grants of up to $1 million to small businesses who incurred losses due to federal immigration enforcement actions.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThis is disaster relief for Main Street,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n Recently, Markey also introduced the Securing Help for Immigrants through Education and Legal Development (SHIELD) Act. The legislation would authorize the Attorney General to provide grants to agencies to build a workforce to ensure legal representation for immigrants facing removal proceedings.\u00a0<\/p>\n Removal proceedings are considered civil matters. Although a person has a right to an attorney in such courts, the government will not cover the cost of one, forcing many defendants to appear without representation. In Massachusetts, the state\u2019s Massachusetts Access to Counsel Initiative, established last year, often provides such counsel.<\/p>\n \u201cWe need to make sure that lawyers are available,\u201d he said. \u201cOtherwise innocent people are going to be forced to defend themselves \u2014 and that is just intolerable in 2026 in the United States of America.\u201d<\/p>\n Sapienza said he thinks local government action would be helpful. He suggested keeping know-your-rights material accessible in public buildings as an easy way to signal support to immigrants.\u00a0<\/p>\n He also pointed to other municipalities, such as Worcester, that took the governor\u2019s order and applied it at a local level<\/a> as models.<\/p>\n \u201cEconomically, it would help folks to feel a little safer going out of the house, going to work, applying to jobs,\u201d he said. \u201cThe insecurity of going out means people are not entering the labor force. Anything we can do to encourage people to live their normal lives is helpful.\u201d<\/p>\n Contact Kevin G. Andrade at kandrade@newbedfordlight.org<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t \n\t\t\t\t\tMarch 18, 2026March 18, 2026\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t \n\t\t\t\t\tMarch 16, 2026March 16, 2026\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \t
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