It seemed like a regular morning when Yhoana Zapata was unpacking items at El Cambio Latino, the bodega and money transfer service where she works in the Orient Heights section of East Boston.
Then a group of people who’d been lingering outside came in. Zapata asked if they needed a money order from a secure booth. According to Zapata, they told her no, so she left that section of the business. But then the group followed her down one of the shop’s aisles, and she started to feel nervous in the familiar space. They started questioning her in a corner. One of the men, speaking in Spanish, asked how many people worked at El Cambio Latino and where the owner was. Other members of the group then joined in.
They mentioned being from “something like investigations, international security,” said Zapata. “One [agent] came up to me speaking in English, asking me if I was an American citizen. In that moment I was anxious. I realized it could be ICE because I had seen on the news they could make that kind of question.”
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement visited several East Boston businesses on Feb. 13., telling GBH News the visits followed reports of staffers working without permits. The agency said that after speaking with management staff and verifying identification documents of employees, no further investigative action was taken. Business owners and employees deny handing over any documents.
The Trump administration has pledged to go after the “worst first” when it comes to undocumented immigrants, but in practice, ICE agents have detained immigrants who have not committed crimes . The East Boston business owners interviewed for this story told GBH News the agents said they were looking for undocumented workers who didn’t have work permits — though they did not provide judicial warrants or documentation to officially audit the businesses.
Residents have been particularly anxious in East Boston, a longtime melting pot of people with various immigration statuses from Latin America. According to the city, nearly half of East Boston’s population was foreign-born as of 2023.
But as the Trump administration has signaled its intention to ramp up immigration enforcement, advocates have been ramping up their education efforts on what people’s rights are when interacting with ICE.
That came in handy for Zapata on the day agents showed up at El Cambio Latino. She remembered an informational packet and card distributed by her daughter’s school. Zapata said the agents who approached her didn’t present her with a judicial warrant or even give her a business card.
“I remembered my rights and told the man, 'I’m not obligated to respond to your questions,'” said Zapata.
Zapata called store owner Julieth Atehortua while the agents were at El Cambio Latino, but they left before she arrived. Later, she and Atehortua reviewed security footage that showed some of the agents went into the back area of the business and tried opening a door, without permission. Several looked around the sides of the building as well.
Within an hour, rumors were swirling around the neighborhood.
On the other side of East Boston that same day, restaurateur Walter Castañeda was celebrating his birthday when one of his employees called saying ICE agents were at his Colombian eatery, El Jardin.
When he arrived, about 16 agents were lingering inside and outside the business. One agent told Castañeda they’d received an anonymous call about work permit violations.
“They had no uniforms or anything identifying them,” Castañeda recalled, though he said they were carrying batons and firearms. “They said 'We need your information for all your employees, can you do us a favor and give us all their information?’”
He refused, asking to see a judicial warrant or have a lawyer present.
At that point, an agent stopped one of El Jardin’s delivery employees at random as he went outside to move his double-parked car. The employee gave his information to agents, who saw that he had an upcoming date in immigration court for a political asylum case.
“If you don’t go to court, we’ll come for you,” the agent said, according to Castañeda.
Castañeda said the agents weren’t aggressive. And while the ICE visits to both his restaurant and to El Cambio Latino earlier that day were not raids, he asked agents to leave El Jardin because their presence was “causing fear,” he said. Unlike Zapata at El Cambio Latino, Castañeda did receive a business card from a special agent for the Department of Homeland Security that included an ICE email address.
Without a judicial warrant, immigration enforcement agents only go into public spaces within a business. That can be to give the business owner notice of an audit to verify employees’ identities and authorization to work in the United States. Those found in violation of the rules can be ordered to terminate staff or face fines. Under federal protocols, businesses have three work days to produce those forms after receiving notice from ICE.
But for El Jardin and El Cambio Latino, no official audit was performed. A third East Boston business was visited on Feb. 13, but the owner didn’t reply to requests for comment.
“They were able to protect their workers and protect their businesses.”Gabriela Coletta Zapata, district councilor who represents East Boston
Miguel Vargas, executive director of East Boston Main Streets, said the impact of immigration enforcement fears on businesses in East Boston and other places with large Latino populations like Revere and Chelsea has been significant.
”They had to reschedule or lay off some people because they don’t have enough business,” he said, noting that anxiety has kept people from patronizing businesses where they’d usually spend money
Vargas said the impact has been felt by consumers as well, with people who’d usually go out to dinner with their families nervous to venture outside.
“They’re afraid that sometimes, you know, ICE is going to walk in and start doing some arrest,” Vargas said.
Vargas said education is important, like knowing to ask for a judicial warrant. He said many organizations are working with business owners and employees to get them information about what to do if agents show up.
“It was due to their [owners] preparedness that they were able to protect their workers and protect their businesses [on Feb. 13],” said City Councilor Gabriela Coletta Zapata, who represents East Boston. “East Boston has a strong immigrant community, and protecting these businesses from ICE enforcement action requires that level of preparedness as well as community support.”
Coletta Zapata recently walked through the neighborhood handing out know-your-rights pamphlets with the city’s Office of Small Business and Mayor’s Office for Immigrant Advancement. Neighbors United for a Better East Boston, an advocacy group, recently went to 85 local restaurants, stores, salons and other businesses with know-your-rights information, with the support of another group, Maverick Landing Community Services.
For the employees and business owners recently visited by ICE, these efforts are essential.
“To be firm and serious and say ”No, I can’t give you this information. This is the law and it’s clear,” said Castañeda of El Jardin, when asked what he’d tell other business owners.
“Be informed and keep calm,” advised Zapata from El Cambio Latino. “Don’t be overcome by your nerves. The person who has information — education about their rights — has power.”
