A new survey of business owners in Brooklyn shows that ICE is not only devasting immigrant families, it is also chilling local economies.
In the Flatbush-Nostrand Avenue section of Brooklyn, 70 percent of local business owners surveyed reported a decrease in foot traffic in the area, which is critical to storefront businesses. Fifty percent said customers told them explicitly about ICE concerns, and 33 percent anticipated a likely workforce reduction.
The survey, just the most recent of many studies with similar results, that asks about both ICE raids and tariffs, was conducted by the Flatbush-Norstrand Avenue Business Improvement District.
The moral case for a radical shift from mass deportations is overwhelming. The massively scaled-up ICE arrests have destroyed lives, incarcerated children, and resulted in indiscriminate killings on the streets of America.
Yet the economic case is also crystal clear. ICE arrests hurt businesses, workers, and overall economic growth.
What America needs is a sensible immigration policy that values the role immigrants play in our communities, not a blind lashing out that hurts immigrants most but injures all of us in the process.