USA: Immigrant workers 'in a double bind' between working to pay rent at risk of ICE detention, or staying home to avoid detention & risking eviction
"ICE raids lead to another crisis for immigrant workers and families: How to pay rent", 20 June 2025
Federal immigration raids across Southern California have been taking workers away from their families...those left behind are starting to wonder how they’ll pay next month’s rent...
“We will likely see an uptick of folks being evicted due to non-payment of rent, and the inciting event will be that their loved one was detained and taken by" Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said Henrissa Bassey, an eviction defense attorney with the legal aid nonprofit Bet Tzedek...
Other immigrant workers who have not been detained are also losing income as entire workplaces shut down to avoid being targeted in future sweeps.
Immigrant workers were already struggling to afford L.A.’s high rents before this month’s raids...
In the desert city of Adelanto...people seized in recent sweeps are being held in an ICE detention center run by the private prison company GEO Group.
“Their conditions inside there were awful,” said Leslie Quechol, who came to visit her cousin this week. Her cousin was one of dozens arrested in a raid on Ambiance Apparel, a company in downtown L.A.’s Fashion District.
Quechol said her cousin is “the head of his household.” After being detained, he “left three kids and his wife” behind in their Boyle Heights home, Quechol said...
Tony Carfello, an organizer with the L.A. Tenants Union, said a pause on evictions is necessary because immigrant workers are facing “two crisis situations at once.” L.A. rent puts them at risk of eviction, while ICE raids put them at risk of deportation if they keep working for rent money...
Local landlords have consistently opposed calls to reinstate pandemic-era eviction protections for late rent payments...
Preemptive workplace closures have been happening in L.A.’s apparel industry, a low-wage sector that heavily relies on undocumented workers. In a 2020 survey conducted by the Garment Worker Center, 93% of L.A. workers said they worry about paying rent.
Juan, a garment worker in L.A., said his boss told him and dozens of other workers to stay home after the Ambiance Apparel raid. The decision to close the factory was made to avoid being targeted in another federal sweep. But it means workers are not getting paid...
Day laborers are among the workers who have been arrested in recent raids...