In southwestern Brooklyn, alongside the Upper Bay, Sunset Park is home to a dense immigrant community. On 5th Avenue, where restaurants serve a wide variety of Latin American cuisines, residents fill the streets and the neighborhood’s leafy namesake park perched above.
But many Latino restaurant owners say ICE sightings in the area, and ongoing arrests in Manhattan immigration courts, have injected fear into Sunset Park. Sales are down, they say, with many undocumented residents avoiding eating out or shopping, worried that being inside a restaurant or store makes them more vulnerable.
It is just one of the ways President Trump’s sweeping crackdown on immigrants has changed the daily rhythm of life in New York City.
A 62-year-old woman said profits at her Guatemalan restaurant and grocery store near the hilltop park have gone down 30% in the last three weeks. In the past three weeks, her sales have plummeted from roughly $2,400 a day, to $1,700 to $1,800 a day.
“It’s a tough time for me,” the woman told the Daily News. “It’s affected me. It is very slow. A lot of people don’t want to come because they don’t know what’s happening at the moment.”
Like many of the people who spoke for this story, she asked her name not be used for fear of what might happen.
In February, the owner said she saw ICE agents stake out a nearby corner on 5th Avenue, a main thoroughfare in the neighborhood, for nearly two weeks, apparently searching for specific people to arrest.
More recently, rumors of ICE spotted in the northeastern corner of the neighborhood, at 43rd St. and Fort Hamilton Parkway, bordering Borough Park, swirled in group chats among migrant residents, and on social media Thursday.
The woman said it’s sightings like these that have spooked her regular customers, mostly from Guatemala, from coming into her shop.
“In February there was ICE around here. On the corner. They were in uniform. They were hanging out around there. People are scared a lot,” she said. “Most of my customers, they don’t have papers. A lot of people stay in the house, more people do deliveries.”
‘Now the U.S. isn’t safe’
Aside from local ICE sightings, the blitz of ICE arrests in city immigration courts have left residents uneasy, with reports of people being seized after appearing for routine check-ins coming almost every day.
The crackdown came after White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller said recently that the administration was setting a goal of 3,000 arrests by ICE each day and that the number could go higher.
The Guatemalan restaurant owner said she’s worried about an employee of hers attending a routine court hearing for their asylum case in July.
“I told him he needs to get a lawyer. There is a lot of risk to go there. And there is a risk not going there. It’s the same,” she said.
The Trump administration’s opaque, quickly shifting tactics have left the community paranoid, wondering what could happen next.
However, a senior ICE official sent an email Thursday to regional leaders of the ICE department, telling them to largely pause raids and arrests in restaurants, hotels and the agricultural industry, the New York Times reported Friday.
The memo stated agents were not to make arrests of “noncriminal collaterals,” referring to those who are undocumented but have no criminal record.
The woman said nearly all of her employees are young, single undocumented migrants, hailing from the same city in Guatemala — Sololá.
“The boy who makes the deliveries, he’s scared. He tells me I’m not safe,” she said.
A Guatemalan migrant herself, the owner said she grew up impoverished, and lived near the country’s largest landfill, in ‘Zona 3’ of Guatemala City. After her family’s home collapsed during an earthquake in the late ’70s, her parents and siblings immigrated to Los Angeles. She soon followed, crossing the border at age 20, four months pregnant with her daughter and with her 2-year-old son in tow, seeking a better life.
“[Guatemala] is dangerous. No money. No security. Sometimes we come from our country to be safe, and now the United States isn’t safe,” she said. “You hear the news, and you feel unsafe. Me, I’m thinking, I have my kids, my grandkids here. My life is here. My family’s here.”
No customers, no tips
A block down the street from the Guatemalan restaurant, a 54-year-old migrant sat behind the counter of the Mexican deli and restaurant he has run for the past 25 years.
“People are scared. They’re not going shopping. It’s bad. It’s bad. The business is going down, down down,” the man said Thursday. “Everything is very slow. Very slow. Yesterday maybe 10 people come inside.”
In the past month, he said his sales have dipped from roughly $1,000 a day to $500 to $600 a day. If things continue the way they are, he doesn’t know how he’ll make his $900 rent for the bedroom he lives in, in a shared apartment.
At a popular taco spot on 4th Ave., a waitress told the Daily News that their dine-in customers have thinned out in the past month.
“The Americans come, but the Mexicans, I haven’t seen them,” the woman said.
She said more customers are getting their food delivered, leaving her and her colleagues with less tip money.
At a Venezuelan restaurant a few blocks away from the taco joint, a waitress shared the same observations. She guessed the slowdown in business was a result of tariffs, inflation and of ICE arrests spreading fear in the community.
A baker at a Mexican bakery on 5th Ave., who only gave his name as Albaro, also said he’s seen fewer customers coming in.
“I’ve seen the difference between three weeks ago and now. In general [there’s less customers],” the 34-year-old man said. “I’m a citizen and it also affects me because of my job. I’m iffy if I’m gonna stay here because if sales go down more, I’ll probably have less hours.”
Joel Almanzar, a Bay Ridge resident who traveled up to Sunset Park for lunch at a popular Latin American restaurant on Thursday afternoon, said the eatery was normally crowded at that time of day. At 12:15 p.m. only three tables in the large dining area were occupied.
“This time [of day] it used to be always packed. Now with what’s going on, you see the decrease a lot. At this time [of day], you couldn’t even go in here. You had to call and order the food. Now you can just walk in,” Almazar, 44 said.
Dominican born, and now a U.S. citizen, Almanzar criticized the flurry of ICE arrests across the city.
“I’ll say one thing. They should take out the bad people. The people that are working, doing stuff, they don’t got no criminal record, they should leave them alone,” he said.
“The people that are working, doing the right thing, trying to get a better future. That’s why we come over here. This is the land of the free.”
Originally Published: June 14, 2025 at 12:30 PM EDT
