PHOENIX — Valley businesses that rely on customer traffic in primarily Latino communities said they’ve noticed a drop in people attending events, brick-and-mortar stores, and restaurants amid a federal immigration crackdown.
Jorge Diaz started his handcrafted accessory business, Lemon Design 25, right before the pandemic. He said in his five years of business, he’s never seen quite a drop in attendance at local artisan markets among Latino communities.
“We work with a lot of non-profit organizations and art organizations that are aimed at the Latino community,” Diaz said. "All of the artisan markets, all of the pop-up events that we have done, when all the ICE deportations started happening, people stopped going to these events.”
Regardless of immigration status, the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce estimates the buying power of all Latinos in Arizona to be $72 billion.
"We have so much purchasing power, and when people are afraid to leave their homes, that money just stays in there, it’s not moving,” Diaz said.
ABC15 spoke with other Latino-owned businesses that echoed the same customer trends but did not feel comfortable being named.
The anecdotal stories are now being backed by research.
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A new Pen Wharton Budget Model anticipates a nationwide GDP drop of 1% by 2034, if 10% of unauthorized immigrants were removed for the next four years.
Plus, a recent national study by Economic Insights and Research Consulting outlined a large decrease in the agricultural industry workforce this year, compared to growth in prior years.
That same study said that it may still be too early to tell the full impact on consumer cost increases as they relate to deportations.
“A lot of people, they stopped going to work, they stopped going to school,” Diaz said.
The University of California Merced noted a higher rate of non-citizens staying away from work, compared to American citizens, this year after early summer ice operations in California.
