Immigration Arrests Empty Shops, Stall Construction in Charlotte

This story is republished from The Charlotte Ledger.

At the construction site of a high-rise apartment tower in Midtown Charlotte, just 10 workers showed up Monday—down from the usual 180.

In Pineville, an international grocery store is cutting back its hours. And in east Charlotte and along South Boulevard, dozens of restaurants and shops are closed. Those that are open sit mostly empty.

Businesses, especially ones that serve Charlotte’s Hispanic community throughout the city, are grappling with how—and whether—to remain open as Latino workers and customers stay home amid a sweeping federal immigration operation across Charlotte.

Since U.S. Border Patrol came to Charlotte on Saturday, agents have made more than 200 arrests—some of which have been captured on bystanders’ phones, with videos quickly shared to social media. The Border Patrol’s arrival, which has been criticized by most Charlotte politicians, has led to protests and confrontations with agents.

As the Charlotte surge enters its fifth day, ripple effects of the arrests are adding to the headaches for many of the city’s companies. Latinos account for one out of every six Charlotte residents and are a key part of Charlotte’s workforce—and their spending helps keep other businesses afloat.

And while the impacts aren’t distributed or being felt equally across Charlotte, it’s an open question how significant the economic fallout from the effects of the immigration arrests might be—and how long they might last.

Slight Economic Drag

Mark Vitner, chief economist for Piedmont Crescent Capital, told The Ledger that recent Border Patrol activity in Charlotte is likely to be “a little bit of a drag into the very near term on the economy.”

While some economic activity may rebound immediately once enforcement ends, he noted that certain losses don’t return—especially everyday spending tied to commuting that has been missed this past week, like gas, coffee, and convenience-store purchases.

He said the incidental spending that disappears during the slowdown “doesn’t really recover.”

Vitner expects the situation to ease quickly after federal agents leave, estimating it may take “maybe a week to get everything back to normal.”

One study this year showed that in California, after weeks of immigration-worksite raids this summer, the total workforce dropped by 3.1%. There were steeper drops in noncitizen workers, and researchers suggested that citizens also dropped out of the labor force to fill the gaps left by noncitizen caregivers.

Usually Busy Shops See Few Customers

Along Central Avenue, an east Charlotte corridor that runs through neighborhoods where more than one-third of residents are Latino, the effect of the arrests was plain to see.

Around lunchtime on Tuesday, about half of the restaurants along Central Avenue appeared closed, and the other half were mostly empty. Many had taped fliers to the doors that read: “ICE is not welcome here / no es bienvenido aquí.”

Even businesses that are not Latino-owned appeared to be affected, such as Sen Mee Noodle House, where a sign said the restaurant was closed for lunch and would offer a limited dinner menu “due to staff shortage.” Next door, at the corner of Central and Eastway Drive, there was nobody dining inside the fried food chain Skrimp Shack–although DoorDash orders were mounting on the screen behind the register.

Workers at the Darby Acres Shopping Center a few blocks away said the center is usually bustling with activity in the middle of the day, with shoppers hitting the Family Dollar, Carolina Value Thrift, and Sav/Way Foods Latino supermarket. But those were mostly empty on Tuesday.

There was just one customer inside Sweet Pea’s Floral & Gifts—a worker at an Independence Boulevard funeral home who needed to order a floral arrangement.

Yolanda’s Creations, a clothing and shoe store, was closed. Next door, Yolanda’s Beauty Salon was open. But it had only one worker cutting hair, down from the usual seven, and welcomed its first customer at a little after 12 p.m.—a time by which there would usually have been 15 to 20 customers, said the lone barber, Ernesto Heredia.

“This is bad. It’s hard,” Heredia said. “If they are the Border Patrol, they should go to the border, not here where people are working.”

Across the parking lot, at Lempira Restaurant, the doors were locked, though a few people were inside eating lunch. A waitress came to the door and said the restaurant was keeping the doors locked, opening them only when potential diners approached, “for the safety of our customers.”

Uneven Impacts

A survey sent to east side businesses by neighborhood advocacy group CharlotteEAST this week indicated that about 67% of businesses in the area were closed at least one day.

Some reported that they were losing as little as $500 per day and some were losing as much as $5,000 per day.

“I’ve never seen anything like this, with the exception of maybe the first week of Covid,” said Greg Asciutto, CharlotteEAST’s executive director. “But it’s crazy, because Covid affected everybody equally. This does not affect everybody equally; this is very specifically targeted.”

He said there could be “catastrophic” long-term effects of sustained business closures—but that unlike Covid, there will be no federal relief program.

“Center city, SouthPark, Myers Park—those businesses will feel it from a labor shortage standpoint,” he said. “But we will feel it from a business closure standpoint—and that’s a whole different ballgame.”

Some residents are asking local leaders to provide support for immigrants. The Charlotte City Council voted on Monday to increase financial support for nonprofits and organizations that work with immigrants, WFAE reported, but it is unclear how much money would be available and how it would be spent.

Construction Workers Stay Home

Most of Charlotte’s construction sites have been quiet this week amid Border Patrol’s actions. Construction is one of the most prevalent industries for immigrants, making up about one in four workers, according to the National Association of Home Builders.

David Ravin, CEO of Charlotte-based Northwood Ravin, told The Ledger he had several calls Monday morning from contractors who said their workers weren’t planning to show up to sites out of nervousness. His firm’s local construction sites this week were seeing fewer than a dozen workers show up, where there are usually more than 100.

Many Charlotte construction workers have opted to stay home this week out of fear of being targeted in arrests conducted across the city. Federal agents arrested several people at construction sites across Charlotte on Monday, including at a site off Moores Chapel Road in west Mecklenburg County and on Brookridge Lane in south Charlotte, WSOC reported.

“I think there is a perception that Border Patrol is throwing a broader net than maybe [Immigrations and Customs Enforcement] has been,” Ravin said. “Whether that’s true or false, I’m not sure, but … that’s enough to keep people saying, I’m just not going to tempt fate.”

A mid-morning drive on Tuesday past some of the biggest construction sites in Charlotte, including the Queensbridge Collective development in South End, found only a handful of workers clad in fluorescent safety vests on sites normally humming with dozens of people, equipment, and activity.

Ravin said his company is in a “wait-and-see scenario” for how long the Border Patrol operation will last in Charlotte before knowing what impact it could have on its projects and the local construction market.

“There’s a little bit of understanding to want to pursue criminals and people who are here illegally, but you’re tampering with a very big labor force that does a lot of jobs that a lot of people haven’t traditionally done,” Ravin said. “… The more we’re tampering with that, there’s inevitably going to be some impact.”

Tony Mecia is the executive editor of The Charlotte Ledger.

Lindsey Banks is a staff reporter for The Charlotte Ledger. Reach her at lindsey@cltledger.com.

Rachel Black is a freelance writer based in the Charlotte area.

Ashley Fahey is the managing editor of The Charlotte Ledger.