A Doral, Florida, restaurant owner told AFP that deportation fears had reduced her sales by 40%, while a Republican councilman warned the enforcement drive could weaken his party’s Latino support.
Maria Fernanda Perez said three employees had stopped coming to work because they feared deportation. She linked the decline at her restaurant to customers going out less. Doral, near Miami, is home to a large Venezuelan community, AFP reported.
Perez said she voted for President Donald Trump because she expected the economy to improve. Perez did not disclose her plans for the coming election, but she said of Trump, “Anyone but Trump.”
Republican Doral Councilman Rafael Pineyro told AFP that the effects extended into other parts of South Florida. He warned that Trump’s approach to immigration, alongside economic decisions, could put recent Republican gains among Cuban, Venezuelan and other Latino voters in Florida at risk.
A September poll by The New York Times and Siena College found that, among Hispanic respondents, 66% disapproved of Trump’s performance. Asked which party they wanted to control Congress, 78% chose Democrats over Republicans.
Trump promised a deportation drive while emphasizing a focus on serious criminals, AFP reported. The news agency said more than 1,000 people were entering immigration custody each day. It also reported that Doral residents were sharing alerts about immigration agents and detentions, while some businesses lacked staff and classrooms had fewer pupils.
Lawyer Carlos Bermudez, who described himself as a Republican, said he was receiving frequent calls from people facing immigration proceedings. “They don’t go out, they can’t go to work,” he told AFP. Bermudez criticized what he called his party’s “extreme wing.”
The next electoral test of Pineyro’s warning comes in the Nov. 3 midterm elections.
