As lunch approached on Broadway Avenue in Beechview, a Latino couple climbed out of a white pickup truck pulled up to Las Palmas grocery store and taco stand. Such scenes are commonplace around lunchtime in the area, where a new business has opened every year for more than a decade, according to the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.
But on Monday, the doors of Las Palmas were locked, without explanation. It was part of a citywide shutdown carried out in solidarity with Pittsburgh’s immigrant community — though there was no explanation posted and the couple said, in Spanish, that they hadn’t heard of any protest.
Much of the action was taking place just down the street, at the offices of the Pittsburgh Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. Leaders of the Latino community said that at least 60 businesses across the city — including restaurants, boutiques, construction companies and grocery stores — agreed to shut their doors Monday. It was an effort to highlight the economic impact immigrants have on the Pittsburgh region — and what is put at risk by increased and indiscriminate immigration enforcement.
“People are afraid to be walking around, going to work because of the color of their skin, and this is not the type of environment that we want to live in,” said Monica Ruiz, the executive director of Casa San Jose. “And so, I think that the action today is showing that they are standing to say that we don’t want this.”
Neither the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce nor Ruiz identified any of the businesses participating in Monday’s business strike. (Some businesses have posted messages explaining why they are closed.) They said community leaders said the owners were scared — just as many immigrants are — about what the repercussions could be.
“When it’s our community, we always have someone from the community with us,” Ruiz said But those voices were absent, she said, because “everyone is so afraid.”
Monday’s strike highlighted some of the challenges facing immigration advocates, as they try to raise awareness of the importance of immigrants without being able to go into much detail about who they are.
Another challenge, Ruiz said, was that false rumors about immigration enforcement were scaring immigrants away from living out their everyday lives. Ruiz said she’s heard from restaurant owners who were hearing that their restaurants had been shut down The other day, she said, she heard a rumor that Las Palmas itself had been targeted by ICE — a rumor she could see wasn’t true just by looking out her window.
“These honestly are scare tactics to keep people scared and not be able to do the things that they need to do,” Ruiz said.
But she acknowledged that immigration enforcement efforts have increased, noting on Monday morning alone, her organization had received verification of new enforcement actions in Butler, Washington and Allegheny counties. Two of the immigrants swept up, she said, were in the United States legally.
Ruiz said people should only publicly share information that they have been able to verify. So far, Ruiz said, all of ICE’s enforcement efforts in Pittsburgh have targeted individuals – there have not been any sweeping raids on businesses this year, she said.
Oliver Morrison
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90.5 WESA
Ruiz declined to provide assurances to immigrants about how safe it was for them to patronize various businesses right now, after three weeks of increased enforcement in the Pittsburgh area. “I don’t want to give a false sense of hope to my community,” Ruiz said.
The White House responded to questions by claiming that it’s deporting criminals. (Though officials haven’t released data on how many of those detained in the last three weeks have criminal records.)
“If businesses want to turn away customers for a day to protest criminal illegal immigrants being deported and our immigration laws being enforced, so be it,” said Kush Desai, a spokesman for the White House. “The Trump administration will continue to prioritize the wellbeing and safety of American citizens above all else.”
Jake Pawlak, a top aide to Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey, said the city has always depended on immigrant labor, noting that 100 years ago his Polish ancestors ran hardware stores and butcher shops. “The story of Pittsburgh is a story of immigrant communities coming here for economic opportunity and strengthening our local economy,” he said.
President Trump has threatened to take away federal funding from local jurisdictions that don’t help with immigration enforcement efforts. But Pawlak said the city doesn’t believe that it collects information about citizenship status that it could share, and doesn’t think the city is allowed to participate in immigration enforcement.
“But if we had to choose between being supportive of our immigrant neighbors and a difference in policy with the federal government, we choose Pittsburghers every time,” Pawlak said.
Pawlak also noted that the city does help carry out any criminal arrest warrants signed by a judge, but not the administrative warrants that Immigration police rely on.
“Local police … don’t have the authority to implement a warrant that’s not issued by a judge,” Pawlak said.
In recent weeks, the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce has begun offering legal help to local businesses that are worried about new enforcement efforts, according to Guillermo Velazquez, the executive director of the Pittsburgh Hispanic Development Corporation. Velazquez said that just over half of the 185 businesses they have helped in the Pittsburgh region are restaurants or construction companies.
“We’re always focusing on educating people in how to become a business owner,” he said. “But how to become a business owner can encompass many things. And so right now we’re focusing on being able to connect them with lawyers.”
Ruiz said the idea for Monday’s strike came from a group of around 20 local Latino businesses that were worried about the potential impact of the new enforcement efforts.
“These people are going to lose money today because they’re not open,” she said. “But that’s nothing compared to what can happen for the years to come if things continue to be the way that they’re going right now.”
