ICE Raids Are Driving a Looming Eviction Crisis for LA Immigrants

This article was first published by the nonprofit newsroom LA Public Press on September 10, 2025 and is republished here with permission.

When federal immigration agencies ramped up enforcement operations in Los Angeles in early June, Juana, a 57-year old street vendor in the San Fernando Valley, stopped selling tamales and gorditas from her popup stall in Chatsworth out of fear that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents would arrest her or her customers.

“It scared us, and we stopped selling food for two weeks,” said Juana, whose identity LA Public Press has agreed to protect due to her immigration status. “A lot of my usual clients aren’t coming to buy food or aren’t leaving their homes out of fear. So business isn’t the same.”

Needing to pay her rent, she has resumed selling tamales each morning, but Juana said she does so with fear, knowing that President Donald Trump’s administration has threatened to ramp up immigration enforcement operations in LA and other “sanctuary cities.”

“We leave our home not knowing if we’ll ever return,” Juana said. “We’re always thinking, worried about what could happen to us.”

The north valley region of LA, and particularly Van Nuys, have been among the LA areas hardest hit by ICE raids in the past few months, according to a new report by LA tenant advocacy coalition The Rent Brigade. The group, which scoured social media reports, news stories, and official accounts, collected data on 200 ICE operations in the city from June 6 to August 14. Five of those operations took place in Van Nuys, resulting in 53 people being grabbed and detained by federal immigration agents.

Moreover, the report found that raids have overwhelmingly focused on workplaces — 75 percent of the tallied raids were at businesses like garment factories, car washes, and particularly Home Depots — which has deterred people who fear targeting by ICE from making a living and thrown the immigrant community into a pending eviction crisis.

The report “Disappeared and Displaced,” which makes the case for LA to declare an eviction moratorium, also surveyed 120 immigrant renters and found that 28 percent of respondents were at least one month behind on paying rent. Additionally, respondents have seen, on average, a 62-percent drop in income since ICE raids ramped up across LA in June.

Before ICE raids increased, immigrant renters reported spending 42 percent of their income on rent — making immigrants an already rent-burdened population. After the raids began, immigrant tenants reported losing an average of $2,000 per month in wages and are now spending 91 percent of their income on rent, according to the report.

Emily Phillips, a researcher with The Rent Brigade and the report’s lead author, told LA Public Press that ICE raids could have a long-term impact on immigrant workers if elected officials don’t do more to support them.

“One vendor recalled that, since raids began, she’s making a quarter of what she made originally,” Phillips said. “So not only are people not showing up to vend but those same communities are no longer interacting with the local economy.”

Phillips said street vendors in particular face a cruel dilemma of having to decide whether to risk arrest or earn money to survive. Selling their goods in public spaces leaves them without the nominal legal protections that ICE must get through to arrest workers inside restaurants and factories. The report found that ICE arrested 32 vendors across 17 raids between June 6 and August 14.

“There’s a dynamic where folks are put in this impossible choice of ‘do I risk my paycheck or risk eviction?’” Phillips said.

DHS said in a statement to LA Public Press on Tuesday that the agency has arrested 5,497 people across the LA County region since June 6.

“Every day, DHS is enforcing our nation’s laws across all of Los Angeles, not just Home Depot,” a DHS spokesperson said in the statement. “President Trump and Secretary Noem are putting the American people first by removing illegal aliens who pose a threat to our communities.”

Tenants call for an eviction moratorium

On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court sided with the Trump administration and allowed immigration enforcement agents to at least temporarily resume arresting people they suspect are in the country illegally based on whether the person speaks Spanish or has brown skin. The decision specifically cited a person working at a car wash or as a landscaper as a valid reason to target someone for immigration enforcement — further fueling concerns that anyone who works at such places is vulnerable to being arrested.

With the prospect of raids continuing indefinitely, Phillips and other tenant advocates including the LA Tenants Unions see an eviction moratorium, akin to the one enacted during the COVID-19 pandemic, as key to preventing displacement for renters who missed work or lose wages due to the raids.

“I think these situations [today] are so out of the ordinary and unprecedented and those require unprecedented policy,” Phillips said.

LA ended its three-year pandemic-era eviction moratorium in 2023.

LA County Supervisor Janice Hahn said in an email to LA Public Press that she supports emergency relief for immigrant renters, but she didn’t respond as to whether she’d back an eviction moratorium.

“Hardworking people are being ripped away from their communities– leaving families without breadwinners and no way to pay their rent or put food on the table,” Hahn said. “That is why our Board is right now considering a massive rent relief proposal so that families in need don’t just get temporary eviction protection but get the support they need to make it through this crisis and keep a roof over their heads.”

A county proposal would launch a $20 million fund for immigrants impacted by ICE raids and residents recovering from the January wildfires.

The motion by Supervisor Lindsey P. Horvath would provide emergency funds to help people pay their mortgage or rent if they lost wages due to ICE raids or wildfires, or are low-income and facing eviction, according to Horvath’s office.

Horvath said in a statement to LA Public Press that she supports exploring “eviction protection” but didn’t say she’d back a moratorium.

“I am committed to pursuing every possible solution, including new protections and policies, to prevent displacement,” Horvath said. “I welcome this report, and I take seriously its call to explore options like an eviction protection. Using status quo policies at a time when this Administration has made clear their commitment to terrorizing anyone they perceive to not belong is choosing to put our heads in the sand.”

Horvath’s motion will be discussed at a September 10 county administrative hearing before returning to the board for a vote on September 16. Horvath represents the county’s Third District, which covers an area that stretches from Hollywood to San Fernando, and Sylmar to Santa Monica.

Supervisor Hilda Solis told LA Public Press she wants “eviction protections” bolstered but also stopped short of saying she’d support a moratorium.

“No one should live in fear of losing their housing or being targeted by ICE simply because they are renters,” Solis said. “I strongly support efforts to strengthen eviction protections and prevent landlords from exploiting or threatening tenants based on immigration status.”

Supervisor Holly J. Mitchell told LA Public Press that renters at risk of eviction can access relief funds financed by county sales tax Measure A, but she also declined to back an eviction moratorium.

LA Mayor Karen Bass and Supervisor Kathryn Barger didn’t respond to LA Public Press’ inquiry as to whether they’d support an eviction moratorium.

Marie Claire Tran-Leung, an attorney for the National Housing Law Project said some landlords are feeling emboldened to threaten to call ICE on tenants who may raise legitimate concerns about their living conditions.

“It creates this climate of fear that can chill tenants’ willingness to raise legitimate issues around habitability and conditions, and to try to exercise their rights,” Tran-Leung said. “When landlords are able to hang that threat over their tenant’s heads, it really exacerbates an already significant power imbalance in favor of the landlords.”

Tran-Leung said cities and counties can also do more to remind tenants of their protections under local and state law

In LA, a 2021 anti-harassment law protects tenants against any threatening action by landlords and bars landlords from inquiring about a tenant’s immigration or citizenship status or disclosing that status to any government agency.