Ordinarily, the streets in the lively Columbia Heights neighbourhood of Washington, D.C., would be filled with Latinos shopping or working at local stores, street vendors and restaurants. But lately, the normally vibrant community is nearly empty.
It all changed on Aug. 7, when U.S. President Donald Trump deployed federal law enforcement agencies and the National Guard into the city.
"People are just really scared to be out," said Fernanda Rivas, whose parents own two bakeries in the area. She says the increase of law enforcement officials on the street has spooked a lot of her customers.
"This place is always busy with immigrants and everybody working here, and now we see a really big slowdown of customers coming in simply because people are just scared to come out here."
Her family's businesses survived the pandemic, but now they're struggling again.
"People are coming into the bakery and just apologizing and being like, 'I'm sorry we haven't come in.
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