Guillermo owns a Mexican restaurant in Highlandtown with his brother, Daniel. Normally, it’s busy at lunchtime, but on a Friday in mid-June, no customers were in sight.
They stood in the back of the store, waiting for any customer to show up. Outside the store, the sidewalks that span Eastern Ave. remained mostly empty.
After recent Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids in Highlandtown, they said, their regular customers have become too scared to leave their homes. Soon, they added, the restaurant that they’ve run for five years might run out of money.
Residents said Baltimore has seen an uptick in arrests by ICE since President Donald Trump took office, and a marked increase in recent weeks. However, the ICE has boasted high arrest and detention numbers, but has reigned in the availability of the data since the start of the administration.
President Donald Trump promised voters on the campaign trail mass deportation operations because, he said, immigrants who have entered the country present a threat to national security and the public’s safety.
The Baltimore Sun agreed to identify several business owners by first name only, as they said they are in the country illegally and fear attracting immigration authorities’ attention.
The raids have slowed business by at least 50%, and in some cases, shut down business altogether, Highlandtown restaurants and barbershop owners told The Baltimore Sun.
The brothers, who are in the U.S. illegally, said they may close their restaurant soon and move back to Mexico to avoid being jailed by immigration authorities themselves.
President Trump ordered the Department of Homeland Security to stop raids on restaurants and fields on Friday in early June, following pressure from the Secretary of Agriculture, he rescinded that order later in the week. Highlandtown business owners said their clientele never returned.
For Guillermo and Daniel, caught between a struggling business and the threat of deportation, Trump’s immigration policies have upended their whole lives.
“Inmigrar no es delito,” Guillermo said. “Esta desde que existe la humanidad..”
In English, Guillermo said that immigration is not a crime – and people have immigrated all over the world since the start of humanity.
“Es un sentimiento agridulce,” Guillermo said. “Cuando me vaya, va a ser muy triste. Mi vida ha sido mas aqui que en Mexico.”
In English, that means Guillermo feels torn. He’s lived decades in Maryland, far longer than he lived in Mexico, he said.
Highlandtown businesses: Don’t know how long they’ll hold out
David, who owns another Mexican restaurant in Highlandtown, said his business has been down at least 40% over the past few weeks.
The community is afraid to go out because it might be the last time they see their families, he said. Earlier in June, he said, ICE agents arrested people at the corner near his store.
David and his family came to Baltimore a few years ago, fleeing high New York City rents. Here, they opened their restaurant, and up until now, have done well. But the lack of clientele in recent weeks has cut their revenue.
This time last year, David said he bought three boxes of chicken a week to supply his restaurant. Now, he only buys a box and a half. He worries about paying bills like rent, electricity and internet since revenue is down.
He doesn’t know how long they will be able to hold out.
A local representative said while ICE’s presence has been felt throughout his entire district, there are opportunities available for small businesses who are feeling the pinch right now.
District 1 Baltimore City Councilman Mark Parker said businesses that are struggling can contact the Mayor’s Office of Small and Minority Business Advocacy & Development, Safe City Baltimore, and The Baltimore New American Access Coalition, which will provide support to community-based businesses in the form of legal services or economic support.
“Baltimore City has always been a city of immigrants,” said Parker, who represents Highlandtown. Waves of immigrants from Ireland, Germany and Italy and Greece…from all over the world…have helped to renew, enliven, energize and enrich the city.”
“Devastating” effects if Maryland loses its immigrant population
Economists in Maryland told The Sun that immigrants are an essential part of Maryland’s economy and they fear that the impact ICE raids have on the area will drive them away. Without immigrants, they said, the economy will lose nearly a billion dollars in state tax revenue, and many essential services immigrants provide will be at risk.
The Maryland Center on Economic Policy is a nonprofit policy and research organization for Maryland state budget, taxes and economic issues. CEO and Founder Benjamin Orr said there is no up-to-the-minute data on how ICE raids are affecting the state economy. He said past data showed that the impact could be massive.
“The governor and the General Assembly had to close the gap approaching $3 billion and if not for the $780 million in taxes that undocumented immigrants paid in state tax dollars, that gap would have almost been $4 billion,” Orr said.
“Maryland’s diversity is among our greatest economic strengths. This environment of uncertainty and fear that ICE creates puts that at risk,” he said.
Maryland is home to more than a million immigrants, who represent 21% of the labor force, according to a 2024 report from the Comptroller of Maryland. Immigrants helped bounce back the labor force post-pandemic as well as offset a population decline in the state, the report said.
Immigrant workers and business owners generated $85 billion of economic output for the state, according to a 2024 report from Immigration Research Initiative, a nonprofit, non-partisan immigration think tank based in New York.
Southeast Community Development Corporation manages programs to help with neighborhood revitalization and local business growth in Highlandtown, among other neighborhoods.
Highlandtown is home to 339 businesses, according to 2025 data by the Baltimore Neighborhood Indicators Alliance at the University of Baltimore.
The organization’s executive director Carla Paisley said that the majority of businesses in Highlandtown are locally owned.
She said that the decrease in business in Highlandtown is due to a wide range of issues beyond the increased presence of ICE. She cited new federal tariffs, new traffic patterns following the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge last year, and the fact that the area is still recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic shutdown.
“This is a strong community that’s incredibly resilient. I don’t think we will see businesses leave. We have weathered different storms in different iterations and we are going to find a way that we can thrive,” Paisley said.
Darius Irani, chief economist for the Regional Economic Studies Institute at Towson University, said if Maryland loses workers because of fears of ICE, “It will be devastating.”
Immigrants do the “dirty dollar” work in fields like agriculture, hospitality, restaurants and construction, Irani said — essential jobs without which the nation would collapse.
The majority of blue-collar jobs are done predominantly by immigrants, with 29% of nurses, 33% of childcare workers and 12% of construction workers, according to the 2024 report by the Comptroller of Maryland and Immigration Research Initiative.
“If we lose them, I don’t know who’s going to do some of these jobs.”
Back in Highlandtown, Keko’s barbershop owner Junot Quiñones, a U.S. citizen, said he moved from Puerto Rico 11 years ago, looking for a better quality of life. He opened his Highlandtown shop three years ago and still maintains a barbershop in Puerto Rico.
He said he used to get about 50 to 100 clients a week, a mix of Americans and Latinos. Now, he’s just down to 50 clients a week, and most are Americans, he said.
While tapering up his client’s hairline, Quiñones said two of his six barbers left because they feared being taken by immigration officials in Highlandtown.
If business doesn’t pick back up, he said, he might return to Puerto Rico.
Have a news tip? Contact Stella Canino-Quinones at scanino-quinones@baltsun.com.