Business
'Fear has been sown.' Street vendors and other workers in L.A.'s massive informal economy react to Trump
As Mario Ramos pushes his ice cream cart through the city, worries course through his mind.
A street vendor in Los Angeles for 20 years, Ramos now carries with him a small red card outlining his constitutional rights in case immigration officers approach him as part of President Trump’s vow to carry out mass deportations. He scours the news for information on enforcement operations and has even cut back the hours he spends on the streets to limit his exposure.
“The street vending community is shaking,” Ramos said. “This is the era of fear for us.”
Ramos, 52, who is in the U.S. illegally, is among the hundreds of thousands of immigrants in the region who lack official work authorization and instead find jobs in the vast informal economy. Often working for cash and well below the minimum wage, their labor has become an economic linchpin, encompassing work in vital industries and including jobs such as child care, caregiving for the elderly, construction and harvesting, preparing and selling food.
“People forget how significant the undocumented labor force is in our state’s economy,” said Manuel Pastor, director of the Equity Research Institute at USC, who has long researched immigrant labor.
“What part of your daily life doesn’t involve contact with someone who is undocumented, whether you know it or not?” Pastor asked. “Did you get food today? Did your house cleaner come?”
The labor and financial implications are particularly pronounced in L.A. County, where undocumented immigrants contributed close to $18 billion to the economy in local, state and federal taxes, as well as spending power in 2021, according to the most recent data from the California Immigrant Data Portal, a project of USC’s Equity Research Institute.
If Trump does carry out large-scale deportations, Pastor said, it would drastically rewire the social fabric of a region where nearly 1 in 5 people is either undocumented or living with a family member who is. It would also create significant disruptions in industries such as construction and food preparation and service, he said, and ultimately lead to higher costs for consumers.
A welder builds a cart at the Food Truck Group in Sylmar on Friday. The company rents out food trucks and carts and helps vendors get permits.
(Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)
“It’s going to be a lot harder to rebuild from the Eaton Canyon and Palisades fires,” he said. “Your prices are going to rise at the grocery store. It’s going to be the opposite of cheaper eggs.”
And the broader economic ripple effects, Pastor said, would be far reaching.
“Behind every software engineer or entertainment industry lawyer is an army of nannies and food services workers and gardeners,” Pastor said. “They may not see their mutual dependence, but it is a fact of life in our economy.”
Although the true scale of deportations remains to be seen, particularly in so-called sanctuary cities such as L.A., which forbids city employees or resources from going toward federal immigration enforcement, the Trump administration has already taken an aggressive stance, including rescinding a policy that prohibited immigration agents from making arrests in hospitals, schools and churches.
And the chilling effect has already begun.
Rodrigo, a construction worker who asked to be identified only by his first name because he is in the country illegally, said fellow workers have started swapping messages of caution, including specific urges to look for ICE immigration agents outside Home Depot locations.
“The fear has been sown,” he said.
The 64-year-old, who arrived in the U.S. nearly four decades ago, runs a small construction company that does electrical, plumbing and carpentry work. In recent weeks, he said, his six employees, undocumented workers from Guatemala, Mexico and El Salvador, who all arrived in recent years, have told him they’re fearful of traveling to certain areas for jobs.
“We’re going to San Clemente today,” he recalled telling the workers recently.
“I’m not going there,” one worker told him. “There is too much immigration.”
He tries to calm their nerves but also reminds them to behave cautiously in public — if you’re going to drink, Rodrigo tells them, do it at home. He warns them that even if they’re doing nothing wrong, a drunk guy at the bar might throw punches, drawing the police to the location, and he worries that anyone detained for any reason could be swiftly deported.
For now, Rodrigo said, he isn’t personally too scared — he’s taking a wait-and-see approach. But to be cautious, he said, he will avoid traveling to either Texas or Arizona, states where he said he expects more harsh crackdowns.
“But with work, I don’t really have time to travel anyway,” he said, noting that he expects business to pick up soon with requests to rebuild after the wildfires.
Kimberly Tapia, who along with her mother, Maria Ponce, started the Food Truck Group, an L.A. company that rents out food trucks and helps street vendors get permits, said fears about deportations have already begun to shift demands at the company.
This grill cart at the Food Truck Group in Sylmar has health permits for handling raw meat. The company is run by Maria Ponce and daughter Kimberly Tapia.
(Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)
The business has recently seen an influx of new clients looking to get permits in hopes of avoiding attention from immigration agents, as well as more inquiries from current clients who want to trade in their food carts for trucks so there is a physical barrier in case agents approach them.
Those with permits “want the ability to lock the door, close up and not feel vulnerable to being taken away,” Tapia said. “They’re worried that because of the color of their skin, someone is going to swing by and say I don’t care if you’re permitted or not.”
Ramos, the ice cream vendor, said a creeping sense of unease has become a constant for him and fellow vendors. The start of Trump’s second term feels different than his first, Ramos said, especially with Republicans now in control of both the House and the Senate.
“There’s a lot of fear of not returning home and knowing that my children will ask, ‘Where is Dad? He never came back,’” he said. “I want people to know it will be four years of fear, four years of uncertainty, four years of sadness.”
It has put a painful damper on a job that has brought Ramos years of fulfillment.
He started selling ice cream years ago, seeing it as a way to bring the flavors of his first home in Puebla, Mexico, to his new one in L.A. And like many other vendors, he is proud to be an entrepreneur.
“We’re not waiting for jobs. We start our businesses and pay our taxes,” he said. “They don’t see how much we contribute to the economy or the taxes we pay.
“If we’re not acknowledged, at least our children who are citizens, they will always know that we were good for this country.”
The luxury shopping center in Pacific Palisades will reopen next month after more than $100 million in renovations forced by the January 2025 wildfire that devastated the Los Angeles neighborhood.
Palisades Village will reopen Aug. 15, owner Rick Caruso announced Wednesday. The outdoor center survived the blaze that destroyed homes and other businesses but needed refurbishment to eliminate contaminants that the fire could have spread.
Crews are putting finishing touches on mall buildings after tearing them down to the studs, treating the wood and rebuilding the walls, Caruso said.
“Everybody’s working, and stores are moving their products in,” he said. “It’s a really cool feeling that people have really locked arms and are working together.”
An electrician installs lighting for a restaurant at Rick Caruso’s Palisades Village on Thursday. The shopping center is scheduled to reopen mid-August.
(Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)
Pacific Palisades resident Allison Polhill, who is rebuilding the home of 30 years that her family lost in the blaze, said she is “thrilled” at the prospect of returning to the mall she used to frequent. Its comeback is a boost for the community, she said.
“Every single step that we make to reopen our commercial corridors is going to bring more people back into the Palisades,” said Polhill, who expects to move back into her home at the end of August.
A total of 6,822 structures were destroyed in the Palisades fire, including more than 5,500 residences and 100 commercial businesses, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.
Caruso previously attributed the mall’s survival to the hard work of private firefighters and the fire-resistant materials used in the mall’s construction.
The $200-million shopping and dining center opened in 2018 with a movie theater and a roster of upmarket tenants, including Erewhon, which may be the only grocer in the heart of the fire-ravaged neighborhood when it opens.
Caruso’s company was able to fill the mall with tenants despite the long shutdown.
Palisades Village is 99% leased, with the majority of tenants returning, said Jackie Levy, chief financial and revenue officer. Nearly one-third of the shops and restaurants are new to the property.
A firefighter carries a hose back to his rig while walking through a destroyed home from the Palisades fire in Pacific Palisades on Jan. 7, 2025.
(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)
Last year, Pacific Palisades-based fashion designer Elyse Walker said she would reopen her eponymous store in Palisades Village after losing her 25-year flagship location on Antioch Street to the inferno.
Other neighborhood shops destroyed in the fire that are reopening at the mall include K Bakery and Loomey’s Toys, which caters to children up to age 12 and used to be across the street from Palisades Elementary Charter School.
“It’s been a journey and I’m excited because I wasn’t sure that there was going to be a place to come back to,” said toy store owner Amanda Rastegar. “Hopefully we can bring some of that magic back.”
Rastegar’s home in the Palisades survived but was damaged by the fire. The family returned about eight weeks ago. Her last memory of the fire was a burning supermarket.
“I just couldn’t wrap my brain around what was happening,” she said. “By the time I left, Gelson’s was on fire.”
Among the returning tenants is Angelini Ristorante & Bar. Well-known Los Angeles chef Gino Angelini said he will be in the kitchen next month for a return of the Italian restaurant.
“We won’t do a big celebrity open,” he said. “We want to have a very soft opening and see our customers come back.”
Construction takes place at Rick Caruso’s Palisades Village on Thursday. The shopping center is scheduled to reopen mid-August.
(Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)
An elaborate celebration would not feel “correct for me,” Angelini said, because the devastation has been “very sad” for so many.
Other new tenants include local chef Nancy Silverton, who has agreed to move in with a new Italian steakhouse called Spacca Tutto. Women’s activewear retailer LESET will open its first West Coast location.
Caruso said he is optimistic that customers will return to the center, even though many Pacific Palisades residents are still dispersed. One tracking system estimated that about 30% of the Village’s customer base was impacted by the fire, he said.
“That means 70% did not get impacted, so there’s a lot of customers still left out there,” Caruso said. Historically, the center drew customers from as far away as Beverly Hills and Calabasas, as well as Malibu, Brentwood and Santa Monica.
He also hopes many will be inspired to visit the revived mall.
“I believe in the goodness of people and I believe that people are going to want to support the Palisades,” he said. “They’re going to want to be there and support the businesses that have had the courage and the heart to reopen.”
Walmart is rapidly expanding its network of electric vehicle chargers designed for customers to use while they shop.
The network could help fill gaps in EV infrastructure in states with greater need for chargers. Walmart, which has more than 5,000 locations in the U.S. and hundreds in California, says more than 90% of Americans live within 10 miles of one of its stores.
The chargers also offer an incentive for customers to choose Walmart — Walmart Plus members will receive a 10% discount off an average price of $0.46 per kilowatt-hour of energy at the company’s chargers.
Walmart chargers are already available at more than 75 locations in 17 states, with Texas boasting the most charging stations, followed by Florida and Arizona.
Matthew Nelson, Walmart’s director of energy policy, said last week on LinkedIn that the network will soon reach 29 states, including California.
“We are delivering on the promise of affordable, reliable and convenient charging,” Nelson said in his post.
According to Walmart’s website, six charging stations are coming to California soon, though the company did not offer a specific timeline.
The chargers will be installed at stores in Antelope, Brea, Fresno, Stockton, Suisun City and Vallejo.
Most charging sites in California will include eight to 16 fast-charging stalls, said Walmart spokesperson Kelsey Bohl.
The company first announced plans in April 2023 to install its own EV chargers at Walmart and Sam’s Club stores, with a goal of installing thousands of chargers by 2030. Partnering with ABB E-Mobility and Alpitronic, it added 25 new charging sites this past May and six more in June.
“Walmart is building a leading retail-integrated EV fast-charging network, focused on delivering an affordable, reliable and convenient charging experience where customers already shop,” Bohl said in an emailed statement. “Customers can charge while they shop, access stations through the Walmart app they already use, and benefit from affordable pricing.”
The charging stations already available include 612 individual charging stalls using 400-kilowatt chargers. Each stall has a dual charging cord with both Combined Charging System and North American Charging Standard connectors. The standard connectors, designed by Tesla, are smaller and lighter than the combined systems.
The primary way to pay for the chargers is through the Walmart app, but the company is also experimenting with built-in credit card readers to allow those without the app to use the stations.
Customers can check charger availability on the Walmart app. The company said the chargers will be available 24 hours a day.
Robotaxis could be turning into robocops.
A self-driving Waymo reported two teens to San Mateo, Calif., police on Monday after they were found drinking alcohol and shooting toy guns in the back of the vehicle.
According to a social media post from the San Mateo Police Department, officers detained two 15-year-olds after the Waymo they were riding in contacted the department and stopped in a parking lot until law enforcement arrived.
“Parents do you know where your teens are?” the San Mateo Police Department wrote on Facebook following the incident. “Waymo does!”
Officers removed both teens from the vehicle and determined they were using toy guns to shoot Orbeez out the windows. Orbeez are small, water-absorbing beads sold at toy stores.
“Toy guns, water guns, and BB guns all pose real dangers, especially to an untrained eye,” the Police Department said. “The simple handling of them can cause fear in [passersby].” “
A video posted on Facebook shows at least five officers and a police dog responding to the scene and approaching the Waymo with their weapons raised.
Waymo did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Waymo vehicles have internal cameras and microphones that may be used in an emergency or to “promote safety and security,” according to Waymo’s online support page.
The cameras are also used to ensure the vehicles are clean and to help find lost items, according to the support page.
The company said it does not use facial recognition or other biometric identification technologies to identify individuals.
“In more urgent circumstances, support may access live video during a trip,” the Waymo page said.
The San Mateo Police Department’s Facebook post has garnered nearly 60 comments, with one user accusing Waymo of “snitching.”
“At least they got a designated driver?!” one user commented.
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