A New York Dreamer who runs two small businesses spoke up about the “hysteria of mass deportations” that has taken shape under the rule of President Donald Trump throughout the city and specifically within her community. As she says, she and her staff live under a dark cloud and fear of what may happen next.
Sarahi Marquez has lived in Staten Island since she was six years old. At 33, she has opened a Tex-Mex restaurant and a deli, offering her community places to eat together and discuss what’s happening in the world. In the past week, she has noticed a shift in the mood among her staff and customers.
“It has been a dark cloud that has come over us, with fear, anxiety, depression, panic,” she told Newsweek at a briefing Monday sponsored by the New York Immigration Coalition (NYIC), a migrant advocacy group. “We’re all nervous. We don’t know what’s going to happen.”
Trump’s Deportation Measures
As a self-declared sanctuary city, New York does not allow local law enforcement or other agencies to cooperate with federal immigration agencies like Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). That does not mean that raids or enforcement action will not happen for the state’s 602,000-plus illegal migrants, as the new Trump administration seeks to deliver on its promises of mass deportations and stricter border security. Large majorities of both Democrats and Republicans agreed that the immigration system is broken.
Marquez, 33, runs San Jeromino Restaurant and Bakery, which she opened after seeing a need in her Port Richmond community for a place to serve authentic Mexican food and offer a community meeting space.
She said several of the restaurant’s roughly 20 employees have been on edge in the past week, waiting to see if ICE would show up as they get the bus to work or head home in a cab. While there have been no reported ICE raids in the city, enforcement action was reported on Long Island, and in West New York, NYIC said that action within the five boroughs is expected to come at any time.
“There is a street musician that comes by, usually on the weekends, plays his guitar, a little song, and asks for any tips,” Marquez said. “Yesterday, he came in to play a song, and as he was setting up, three police officers came inside. I thought they came in for a noise complaint. I go up to see what’s going on, and they take the guy away.”
She said officers from the NYPD had come to detain the man for missing a court date, but the arrest had an immediate effect on the others in the building.
“Everyone at the restaurant is shocked. They freeze; they don’t know what to do,” Marquez said. “My staff just stands there, and they’re like, ‘What’s going on? Is this ICE?’”
Mass Hysteria
While ICE officers had not shown up, the NYIC noted that the mass deportation effort was government-wide, with the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), U.S. Marshals, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) also involved.
“We have been dealing with the hysteria of mass deportation, and people have been feeling that any local law enforcement they see may be ICE,” Murad Awawdeh, New York Immigration Coalition CEO, said at Monday’s briefing. “There is a level of fear across the city and the state I have never seen before.”
Marquez, who has benefited from the DACA program since 2013, said she wanted to speak out on behalf of her staff, community, and family, who all face uncertain futures.
“There’s a saying in Spanish: ‘Those that haven’t done anything wrong, there’s no reason to fear,’” Marquez said. “I work seven days a week, sometimes 14, 15 hours. We spend our time working; we want to better ourselves.”
