ICE Raids and Protests Empty Out Santee Alley: Dispatch from L.A.
On any other Saturday, Santee Alley in downtown Los Angeles’s Fashion District would be packed shoulder-to-shoulder with people buying cut-rate electronics and quinceañera dresses and $100 three-piece suits and fake Labubu dolls. The goods are cheap, pushcart vendors sell bottled water to keep shoppers cool, and the open-air corridor stays open 365 days a year.
But June 14 was not any other Saturday. It was the day of the No Kings anti-Trump protests a mile away in downtown L.A. By 4 p.m., some businesses on nearby Broadway had boarded up their stores, not wanting a repeat of the vandalism that happened the previous Saturday night, after the protests against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids broke up and several hundred people went on a rampage.
Shopkeepers on Santee Alley were worried about the opposite of looters.
“Today is really dead,” said Sandra, the only employee at a clothing store. Business, she estimated, was off by 95 percent. “On a regular day, we sell $3,000,” she said. The day’s take so far: $100.
It was the same at every store: few to no customers. A private security guard stationed at the mouth of the alley said he hadn’t seen the market this dead since the pandemic, when it was his job to keep people out. A counterman at the Alley Dog was already cleaning off the grill. Usually by this time, they would have sold 300 hot dogs. This day, they had sold one.
A week earlier, immigration agents had raided a nearby apparel warehouse, taking more than a dozen allegedly undocumented employees into custody. While no one in Santee Alley referenced that raid by name, it was clear the fear of apprehension was keeping both shop owners and customers away.
“He did not open today,” said Mike, a native of Punjab, India, of a neighbor whose roll-down door was locked. Mike’s own shop, which sells backpacks and other items, had seen zero cust
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