'We're in survival mode': A year after ICE raids, a couple fight to save their dress shops
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On a recent Saturday morning, Joel Galvez cracked open a spiral notebook and scribbled in the date and a prayer: “Dios bendiga este día.Amen.” God bless this day.
The prayer appears on every page, along with the daily log of dresses he’d sold at one of the clothing stores he owns in the Los Angeles Fashion District.In years past, Joel would note dozens sold.
But a year ago, the Trump administration targeted the shopping district, a retail hub driven mostly by immigrant business owners and Latino shoppers, as part of its mass immigration crackdown.Federal immigration agents targeted at least one business here, arresting more than 40 immigrant workers and triggering civil unrest as they carried out sweeps across Southern California.
The effect on Joel’s store, and others owned by members of the Galvez family, was immediate.The stores sell dresses for proms, special occasions and quinceañeras, a Latin American rite of passage celebrating a young girl’s 15th birthday and her transition to adulthood.
California For the last year, Joel Galvez and Leanor Torres have been in survival mode.Joel, 41, owns two stores that cater to women.
His wife, Leonor Torres, 56, has a shop that specializes in quinceañera dresses and, with Joel, she co-owns a second quinceañera shop.After the raids, the quinceañera shops, normally packed with girls and doting mothers on weekends, often sat empty.Customers called to cancel ball gown orders.Saturdays were once the busiest days, and Joel’s two shops would each sell 50 dresses or more.
Now they might sell 10 each.Leonor went from selling 20 dresses a week to around three, maybe more on good days.The raids also affected small businesses orbiting around quinceañeras: makers of embossed invitations, sellers of tiaras and crowns, choreographers, caterers, florists and more.Leonor said her sister and brother, who co-own a banquet hall in th...