The produce market in downtown Los Angeles sits empty after ICE raids across California.
Gavin Newsom‘s “World‘s fourth largest economy” is propped up on illegal immigrant labor:
**Reporter**: It’s a horrible display of waste, rotting fruit and vegetables scattered throughout this market. Store after store here closed for now, each with plenty to sell, but no one dares come here to buy these days. Immigrants usually fill this marketplace, but since ICE agents arrived in downtown LA, it’s empty. Only a trickle of workers showing up.
**Local Vendor**: People are ordering their groceries through online apps like Instacart, where people would purchase groceries and have them brought to their homes.
**Market Business Owner**: Business owners in the market bleeding money, watching their potential profits rot. They say profits have flatlined, dropped a good 50% of what it is normally here.
**Market Business Owner**: Obviously, people are scared, so therefore, there’s no… people aren’t coming into the market to purchase, to go out and sell, and people aren’t coming in to sell either, so it’s all the way around it’s going to affect business.
**Reporter**: This marketplace sells produce not only to the people but also to grocery stores and restaurants.
**Local Vendor**: Well, I feel like a lot of businesses, if it continues like this, a lot… we’ll probably see a lot of businesses shut down because of this. A lot of maybe like restaurants, a lot of restaurant business owners, restaurants are going to close.
**Market Business Owner**: Folks at the marketplace warning you, the consumer, if the ICE raids continue, be ready for even bigger sticker shock when you go grocery shopping.
**Local Vendor**: You want to deport everybody, then, you know, the cost of products are going to go up.
**Local Vendor**: The few workers brave enough to show up here at the 7th Street Market tell me ICE has not raided this place, but it’s the fear of a raid that is keeping people away, hurting businesses.
