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Step off Acushnet Avenue into Lucy’s Party Store for instant festivity: toddler-sized teddy bears clutching Valentine hearts, a Modelo beer-shaped piñata, bright party hats, tinsel table decorations, big gold numerals to top a birthday cake.
But where’s the party?
Mari Lucy Toj Mendez, who owns the party business in New Bedford’s North End, has been wondering. She joins those merchants who say a pall seems to have fallen over Acushnet Avenue, a main thoroughfare through one of the city’s largest concentrations of Spanish-speaking residents.
Since January, she and others say, they’ve seen fewer people in the shops on the Avenue, declining sales, and mounting worries for shop owners and residents, many of whom are Central American.
Speaking partly through a Spanish interpreter, Toj Mendez, who has been in business in the same spot for 12 years, said anxiety about President Donald Trump’s call for a crackdown on undocumented immigrants seems to be discouraging people from going out, or holding big events.
Toj Mendez said sales of $3,500 in December fell to about $1,500 in January — slow even for a post-holiday lull, she said. She’s accustomed to renting out big, shiny stuffed chairs as “thrones” for guests of honor at special occasions, but those haven’t been moving for weeks.
She wants to stay in business, but who knows? The landlord presses for rent, she said, but the customers are staying home.
Perhaps it’s also seasonal, or part of a national trend, as U.S. consumer spending was reported Feb. 28 to have dropped in January for the first time in two years.
Elizabeth Riz, who owns Elizabeth’s Restaurant on the Avenue, said yes, it’s been quiet, but after 18 years at that location, she said that’s usually how it goes in January and February. She’s waiting for spring to bring more people out.
Muhammad Naseer, who opened Americas Market on the Avenue with a partner in 2012, said business is “OK… January, February, it’s usually slow anyway. At this point, it’s too early” to tell.
Others see a Trump effect.
Trump ran in 2024 calling for an illegal immigration crackdown, focusing on deportations.
Unlike in his 2016 campaign, he dropped talk about building a southern border wall, which was left uncompleted and not bankrolled by Mexico, as he had promised.
Last year, he mentioned a range of numbers of people he planned to deport, always in the millions, and starting with people with criminal records. Published reports described the administration’s plans to build sprawling detention camps in the Southwest holding people by the tens of thousands.
The best estimates say there are between 11.7 to 13.7 million undocumented immigrants living in the country, according to the Center for Migration Studies of New York report in 2024 and a separate analysis published last month by PBS News.
So far, according to a March 3 report from Bloomberg Law News, the pace of detentions across the country has slowed after the first surge. Some 10,000 people were detained in late January and early February, dropping to 8,200 in the two weeks before Feb. 22, Bloomberg reported.
The administration’s tough talk has continued.
Late last month, Thomas Homan, the newly appointed “border czar,” who served with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), first under President Barack Obama, told a gathering of conservatives in Washington: “I’m coming to Boston, I’m bringing hell with me.”
Homan didn’t mention New Bedford, and so far there have been no mass roundups of undocumented people here or anywhere else in Massachusetts.
Nonetheless, Trump’s rhetoric appears to be having its effect, said Corinn Williams of the Community Economic Development Center of Southeastern Massachusetts, an immigrant advocacy organization in New Bedford.
“There’s just this level of fear when Trump got into office, just this effort to scare people: Massive sweeps at a town near you,” said Williams, whose office is a couple short blocks off the Avenue.
The street “definitely seems a little quieter than we’ve seen in the past,” Williams said. “We’ve talked with some” merchants, she said. “They’re noticing a drop-off in business.”
Indeed, the chatter on the street is that people are worried about immigration enforcement — whether or not they actually have anything to worry about.
“Even the legal immigrants don’t come out,” said Justin Farland, of New Bedford, speculating that folks from Spanish-speaking countries may be worried about being stopped and questioned because of their appearance, regardless of their status. “I’ve seen it everywhere… You don’t have to be illegal to be scared.”
He was a customer the other day at the 787 BarberShop on the Avenue, getting a haircut and beard trim from Edgardo Rodriguez. A week before, he’d been on the road working as an independent operator, staging a promotion at a car dealership in Lehigh Acres on the west coast of Florida, where a lot of Spanish-speaking people live.
The dealership was giving away a $40,000 Ford F-150, an event that Farland said he would expect to draw 700 people. He recalled a crowd of about 200.
“It was sad to see,” said Farland, adding that he’s seen low turnouts the last few weeks at events in Michigan, South Carolina, and Virginia.
Through an interpreter, Rodriguez said he’s noticing shop trade slowing down the last few weeks. He said he’s heard people are scared to come out because they don’t know if they’re going to be able to return to their homes.
The next day, there were several customers in the shop, but owner Eric Ramos echoed Rodriguez’s view. He said people seem to be reluctant to spend money, not knowing what’s around the corner.
The money’s not coming in as it has in the past for the business that opened in 2017. Last year’s usual weekly revenue of about $2,500 has dropped to $1,500 to $1,700, Ramos said.
Ramos said he’s been packing up his scissors, clippers and combs and making house calls for customers who are worried about venturing out.
At Union Fruit Market on the corner of Acushnet and Deane Street, manager Pedro Mateo had time to talk with visitors in mid-afternoon. There are fewer customers, he said, and those who do show up don’t linger.
“They just want to get their stuff and leave as soon as possible,” Mateo said through an interpreter.
Most of his customers walk a few blocks to the store, which leaves them feeling exposed and vulnerable, he said.
He figures 80% to 90% of his customers are Spanish speaking, from Central America and Puerto Rico. He’s from the Dominican Republic, where he taught elementary school until he moved to New York in the 1990s. He’s been working at the market since 2005, he said.
Monthly sales totals are down about 20%, Mateo said.
Maria Recimos, who owns Mary’s Restaurant & Cakes at the corner of Acushnet and Coffin avenues, said she’s just started cutting back her evening hours, closing at 9 p.m. rather than 10 p.m.
She said the customers look out at the street and see danger. They think “immigration is outside.”
Email reporter Arthur Hirsch at ahirsch@newbedfordlight.org
Happy to hear illegal immigrants being deported, nobody mentions the millions of tax payer dollars wasted on people who are here illegally from medical services to public schools, lost revenue from those who are paid cash, and no taxes while receiving the same services we the American tax payers fund. I’m looking forward to hearing about a lot more illegal immigrants removed from our nation, hopefully sooner than later.
I would like to know the dollar amount undocumented individuals pay in taxes? They are taxed but unable to file taxes…
These criminals are destroying the immigrant fabric of New Bedford.
Simple Solution, come here legally and you will not have any reason to hide. Businesses that hire illegals are a just as much a part of the problem as the illegals themselves and should be prosecuted. Lastly politicians that support illegal immigration and waste taxpayer’s money need be voted out out of office.
I love how immigrants help the local economy. And they have a lower crime rate than non immigrants.
Thank you for this insightful article on how immigration policies are impacting local businesses along Acushnet Avenue. The discussion about how these policies create challenges for both employers and workers is crucial for understanding the broader implications on our economy and community dynamics. I particularly appreciated the real-life examples you provided, which help illustrate the human side of this issue. To expand on this topic, it’s worth noting that there are various ways businesses can adapt to these challenges beyond simply relying on immigrant labor. Some local entrepreneurs have started offering training programs to develop skills within the existing workforce, which not only helps fill labor gaps but also strengthens community ties. Programs that connect local high schools with businesses can prepare students for careers right in their neighborhoods, creating a more sustainable labor pool. Additionally, the impact of the “writ of mandamus” might come into play here. This legal remedy allows individuals to compel a government agency to perform its duty, which could relate to timely processing of immigration applications. Given the delays many businesses face while awaiting work permits for essential staff, exploring how writs of mandamus can be utilized to expedite these processes could be a helpful angle in addressing the immediate workforce shortages. Have local business owners considered leveraging legal remedies like the writ of mandamus to mitigate the delays they experience in their hiring processes?