January was usually the late month at Eddie’s hair salon on Maple Street in Manchester. Owner Eddie Ozolia opened a barber shop in the 90s, but said this past month was very late. Only a quarter of his regular customers came.
The sudden drop of Eddy’s Barbershop customers is reflected in other Latin-owned businesses in Centre City, Manchester. They say that business has diminished since President Donald Trump took office and soon began to strengthen immigration enforcement across the country, creating fear and uncertainty for many.
“The truth is, I’m going through it too,” he said in Spanish. “Think about it. How are you going to pay the bill? High rent – no one is going to tell us to be strict with it.”
Ozoria noticed that arriving customers had long hair to stop the cut. He says immigration is everything they say, just as news anchors discuss immigration enforcement on barbershop flat screen televisions.
“There are people out of the few people coming who say no one wants to get a haircut,” he said. “They say they’re afraid to go out. Families are afraid to take their kids to school sometimes or go shopping at the store.”
Paying the bill a few blocks away is also in the mind of Anaroman, the owner of Ana Food Market. Business is slow for her too. She cooks Hispanic cuisine staples such as empanadas, rice and beans.
Anything that’s not sold can be thrown away – and recently she’s throwing away a lot of food.
Roman agrees to deport people with criminal records, but she says she is arresting people who are contributing to the economy.
“I agree that the criminals will fall,” she said in Spanish. “But they are grabbing the workers. Our people who work honestly, they want to move on, they are helping us. So people are scared, they don’t want to go out .”
In late January, NBC reported that about half of those arrested on ICE had no criminal history. Trump said his administration would prioritize deporting people with criminal records, but his spokesman recently said that his administration is “criminal” in countries with no legal status. He said he would consider it.
However, living in the United States without approval is considered a civil violation, not a criminal.
As both a chef and a parent, Roman is particularly concerned that their children will be hungry, as they are too scared of their parents going to buy groceries. She says when people are scared of this, everything related to law enforcement will ensure people are at home.
Two weeks ago, Roman said a few hours of Manchester police cruisers were parked in her lot for hours. People were scared to come in, even though the cruiser had nothing to do with her store.
“No one came that day,” she said.
She also said she heard about reports of ice enforcement action at a gas station a few blocks away. NHPR tried to check the report. As a result, a blurry Facebook video could have been someone standing in an icy car park.
Chisses, or rumours, about sightings of ice in the neighborhood, continue to grow. One said the ice was near Central High School. Someone else said they were near Beach Elementary School. Another said dozens of people were taken into custody at the bar.
It is difficult to verify the accuracy of the report. Or it’s difficult if they’re even more frequent than normal. ICE is not responding to multiple requests for confirmation from NHPR.
Handling the rumor factory has become John Cardona’s second job.
He runs El Parcero, a nearby Hispanic grocery store. He has protected many calls from nervous customers who have spent time on Facebook.
“We try to calm them down,” he said in Spanish. “We’ll try to make sure they don’t take themselves away by comments, either by what others say, or by Facebook posts.”
He tells the client that things are normal near him – only the same police cruisers on the same route.
“I tell them to come, I say nothing is going on, and people are still really nervous,” he said.
For those who come, he tries to get them in and out as soon as possible, and try to get details by phone in advance for those who want to send the money back to their home country.
When customers leave El Parceló, they need to carefully navigate the ice-like sidewalks sandwiched by the banks of dirty, frozen snow. Looking up, you will see a 6-foot yard sign in the direct home of the store.
It says, “Trump 2024. Make America Great Again.”
These articles are shared by partners at Granite State News Collaborative. For more information, please visit collaborativenh.org.
