Immigration raids and military presence hurting economy in Santa Ana, employers say

SANTA ANA, Calif (KABC) -- Business owners throughout Santa Ana said the presence of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers, ongoing raids and the presence of the National Guard have hurt sales as a large part of the community stays home in fear.

The presence of the National Guard outside the Ronald Reagan Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse downtown has brought demonstrators to the area and kept customers away.

The loss has been very noticeable for Laura Diaz, the owner of the restaurant Perla. Diaz said she has seen about a 90% drop in business because of fear in her community caused by ongoing immigration raids throughout Orange County and the military presence directly in front of her restaurant since Monday night.

Tuesday morning, the calls started coming in. An event on the second floor and a large reservation, a table for a party of 25, were canceled.

Diaz said Santa Ana is a city with a large immigrant population, and all of the disturbances created by the presence of ICE and the raids have left the entire community shaken.

It's the same story throughout the city.

Several business owners told Eyewitness News they were down to less than 10% of their usual sales since Monday.

Jazmine Ruiz is the owner of Orale Nutrition on Main Street.

"Everything that's going on right now, outside, it does scare a lot of our clients, and we have been like calling them, texting them, because we do have a clientele that comes daily, so we get to know them," Ruiz said. "So we're like, 'Don't worry if you need something from the shop, we could actually deliver to you guys.'"

On Wednesday, traffic was down, and shopping centers where parking is usually hard to find were nearly vacant.

One employee at Ruben's Tortilleria said those who were still making their way over to get groceries came in fear, looking all around.

Diaz and other business owners were left frustrated, their hearts hurting as they saw their community targeted.

Diaz said she knows how much her employees rely on their income, so she knew she had to figure out a way to make sure the slow business didn't affect their wages.