Immigration is a huge focus of President Donald Trump’s first 100 days in office.
But as much as immigration is a political issue, it’s also an economic one.
We worked with our sister stations around the country and spoke with small business owners and attorneys. They say we will all feel the impacts of shifting immigration policy in one way or another.
“You can see the street here is empty,” said restaurant owner Daniel Bojorquez.
An empty Broadway in Somerville is creating concern for the businesses that surround it. Bojorquez has owned La Brasa restaurant on Broadway for 11 years.
“It requires people it requires workers who work people on the streets, requires people to activate the economy,” Bojorquez said.
Bojorquez believes many people in the East Somerville community, which is home to many immigrants, are too afraid to come out. He says there’s been a noticeable shift in street traffic since the beginning of the year. And he’s heard from fellow business owners in the area who aren’t sure they’ll survive this period.
The concern so great, he brought it to the attention of the Somerville City Council.
“They are talking about potential closures,” Bojorquez said when addressing the council during a meeting on February 13th.
“I feel like a lot of people are kind of holding pattern,” Borjorquez told Boston 25′s Kerry Kavanaugh. “They’re basically going to give it until March, April. But if the pattern is still the same basically that people are going to close because it’s not sustainable, basically,”
That fear not isolated to Somerville.
“They’re starting to be afraid because they don’t feel as invited or as welcome as they used to be,” said Felipe Andre, owner of Gostoso Bakery in Orlando, Florida.
Specializing in Brazilian baked goods since 2004, they have predominantly immigrant workers and customers, many of whom are tourists.
“They don’t have documents. They’re not coming to Orlando. People from Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, New York, New York, they are afraid to come and drive here,” Andre said.
That means fewer customers, according to Andre.
“People are an economic engine, and they drive they drive the economy,” said Boston-based immigration attorney Matthew Maiona. He’s also an adjunct professor of business immigration law at Suffolk University Law School and a member of the American Immigration Lawyers Association.
Maiona says immigration crackdowns aren’t just costing customers but also workers, from restaurants and hospitality to construction to healthcare.
“So, you can expect, I think, prices to go up when employees are harder to find to perform certain tasks,” he said. “Maybe your grandparents don’t get their Meals on Wheels delivery or maybe don’t get there their home health aide because that person is no longer working or even afraid to work.”
Maiona says he also works with doctors, and scientists, and researchers stuck in what he calls a broken immigration system.
“People are trying to do their best, right? And companies are trying to stay open. You know, restaurants are trying to stay open,” Maiona says,
“Like a lot of these people who are doing this, some jobs are immigrants. And if that goes away, that’s going to have another effect as well,” Bojorquez said.
Maiona believes there simply aren’t enough legal pathways to immigration and for years has been advocating for comprehensive immigration reform from Congress.
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