ICE raided a popular swap meet. Now vendors and and customers are coming back.

USA Today

25-07-2025

Gerardo Pichardo used to set out his electronics and Amazon overstock products for sale in an indoor space at the Santa Fe Springs Swap Meet. But after an U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement raid on June 14 at the Los Angeles area hub for Spanish-speaking Latino vendors, he said he now sets up outside, "with only essential things, so if anything happens I can get out of here fast."
Vendors such as Pichardo say fear of ICE has meant a loss of customers and fewer vendors this summer. Some vendors stopped showing up, and the ones who continued selling said their business declined, though it is slowly returning.Pichardo recalled that a few years ago, he saw a tribute to Maná — a Mexican rock band — perform at the swap meet. He remembered a crowd of people drinking and dancing to the music. Two such concerts have been canceled since the raid. The swap meet is a place where customers find deals for as low as a dollar, attend live performances and enjoy a sense of community. A month after the raid, canopies shielding vendors from the sun speckled the outdoor lot, with goods laid out on tables and the ground. Signs read '$1' or "$2." Vendors called out to the occasional passing customer. Still, a lot of aisles remained empty.
Some vendors left early. A man selling kitchen supplies packed up his antiques and silverware two hours ahead of closing time. But the community spirit of the swap meet is still alive with him and many others. He sold a toaster for $2 to a skeptical customer, telling him that if it didn't work, he could bring it back.
Cecilia Soriano, who has been selling groceries at the swap meet for a year and a half, said her business has been cut in half since the raid. She hasn't seen some of her regular customers in weeks.
The day of the raid, a woman came around to inform vendors about ICE agents in the area. When her customers passed by, Soriano warned them.
Pichardo, who has been selling at the swap meet for five years, also remembers the day of the ICE raid. He was sitting in the booth with his dad when he heard someone on the phone mention that ICE was two blocks away. Many vendors left. He packed his products into his truck and drove away.
As he exited the lot, he saw two unmarked white vans outside.
Not long after, according a statement the Santa Fe Swap Meet's statement posted on Instagram, more than 110 armed federal agents in tactical gear, alongside a military helicopter, raided the swap meet and detained at least two people hours before a concert with five Mexican bands was supposed to take place.
'It was a regular day until somebody said 'ICE,'' Pichardo said. 'Then everyone was panicking. They knew ICE was in the area, but they didn't know they would come in.'
A friend who has been selling clothes at the swap meet for nearly 10 years hid in a shipping container for several hours until everybody left to avoid the chaos of the raid, Pichardo said.
In its statement on Instagram, the Santa Fe Springs Swap Meet said of the raid that they 'were given no notice of their arrival and at no point' consented to ICE enforcement.
'To be clear, the Santa Fe Springs Swap Meet, and its personnel did not coordinate with ICE or participate in any preplanning of immigration enforcement with federal officials,' they said in the statement. 'These actions were completely out of our control.'
Swap meet managers declined to comment on the effects of the raid on vendors and customers.
The raid at Santa Fe Springs reverberated elsewhere. At the Vineland Swap Meet in La Puente, California, vendors also said they've seen a decline in business, even though their swap meet has not been raided.
Felipe, who asked that his last name not be shared because he fears ICE will target his family, has been selling packaged food, restaurant supplies and knickknacks at the Vineland meet with his parents for over 15 years. He also said that business had declined in the last month since the ICE raids, but it is slowly increasing.
In an interview on July 16, he said that day was the busiest it had been since the raids started.
Still, not everything has returned to normal. He said that there was a woman across from his booth that initially sold clothes but started selling tools at Vineland; since the raids started, her spot has been empty. She was there longer than his family was. He said it is sad not seeing her and wondering if it is because of fear.
His family also has regular customers, and he said there are many he hasn't seen since the raids started, but for the most part many still go to be supportive. It is the way his family sustains their livelihood.
'I think a lot of people are afraid, so they don't, they don't drop by,' Felipe said. 'I think it's recently been picking it back up, but it's still slow.'
Wendy Alma Flores, who has been at a booth ath the Vineland meet giving senior citizens information about Medicare for a year and a half, said that she was initially scared for her clients and she was even afraid to go to the meet because she didn't want to put anyone at risk. She said many vendors didn't have a choice and returned because they needed the income.
But she said she believes more people are showing up because they are learning about their rights, getting more educated and learning how to protect themselves. As a local, Flores said she has been going to the swap meet since she was a kid and remembers walking through the lines of vendors with her family. Now she has her own booth with regulars who sit with her just to have a conversation.
'It's good to see people come back and just see the community united again,' Flores said. 'People actually care about each other.'
At the Santa Fe Springs meet, almost five weeks after the raid, Soriano saw a weekly customer she fondly refers to as 'güera' return for the first time. She said the woman usually buys candy, fruit-juice punch and Gatorade. She has been encouraging more people to come back to the swap meets.
'A lot of these people, they're family to me,' Soriano said.
The community is starting to rebuild. In a July 17 interview, Pichardo said it was the busiest the Santa Fe Springs Swap Meet had been in weeks. He said the rebuilding of the community speaks to the resilience of Latinos in Los Angeles.
'That's the Latino community. We do come together in a time of need, and we do support each other when it's necessary,' Pichardo said. 'It's started picking up already.'