Just away from the meters tracks on the east side of Aurora, Elotes Gus, a food truck, sits in a parking lot. Open every day, according to its owner, Gustavo Salmeron, 47. When he is not working as a Spanish teacher, he is probably there, serving Taco for passers -by and proving the rush and rush of the roads around him from his truck.
On the last Friday evening just before 6 pm, Salmeron’s truck has no line. He said in a typical day, even in winter, there would be regular three or four clients waiting for their dinner so far. But the business has been slow lately, Salmeron said.
“The roads were so lonely, you know what I’m saying?” Salmeron said for the last few weeks. “There were no people around me. This is because most of my customers are Mexicans or, you know, Latin people. … It was so different. ”
Salmeron says many of his clients’ base are undocumented, and he suspects that fear in the Aurora immigrant community – like immigrant communities across the country – on Trump administration policies is the reason that the business is so calm.
As President Donald Trump’s administration promised to hit immigration, seeking Agoikago as zero land, fear and uncertainty have traversed immigrant communities inside and near the city. With a large number of immigrant and undocumented employees, restaurant and food services institutions in the Agoikago area have increased particularly.
Of the approximately 180,000 of its inhabitants, Aurora is more than 40% Hispanic, according to the latest data available, compared to 19% in Illinois and just less than 30% in Agoikago. Its population was just over 25% born from foreign from 2019-2023, compared to approximately 14% in Illinois and just over 20% in Agoikago.
In Aurora, Salmeron described a cooling effect from Trump administration immigration policies. With a client base made up of predominantly Hispanic residents, some of whom are undocumented, he said his business and those around him are trying to stay in the sea.
Some blocks away from ELOTES GUS, right away from the Fox River, Dulceria de Aurora said its weekends are not what they have been before.
Rosa Rios, 41, told Beacon-News in Spanish that families would bring their children to the store on weekends to buy big-family cakes and pinatas, she said, all will come together. These days, only one or two will appear.
“The atmosphere is a little sad,” said Rio’s sister -in -law, Lorena Ramirez, 33. Both women run the store along with their husbands, who are brothers.
Salmeron estimated that his sales were lowered by about half. Ramirez said the same for last month, adding that more and more customers are looking for ways to buy their products without having to come to the store personally.
“Whenever we publish things on social media, we have a lot of comments or many emails or messages … asking if we do the submission,” Ramirez said.
Previously, she said, they mainly received such requests from customers abroad.
Dulceria de Aurora has sold products in flea markets for about 18 years, and they have had a physical store for about 15. Ramirez lived in Aurora all her life, but her husband and her sister -in -law are originally from Mexico. They sell candy and snacks from Mexico, stuffed animals and Pinatas, many of which are custom made.
Karina García, president and CEO of the HISPANICAL RIGHIAL ARPANIK ARAORA Non -profit, said the Trump administration “has scared our families, our children, our workers, in our businesses.”
“You enter stores, they are not as busy as before,” Garcia recently told Beacon-News.
The Illinois Hispanic Chamber of Commerce has made plans and resources available to business owners, so they are prepared if immigration and implementation officers come to their doors, Garcia said.
“Businesses are being targeted,” she said, “because it is usually here the community to eat or buy or buy.”
For Salmeron, he said last few weeks have made a difference from the three decades he lived in Aurora, but he remembers time like these.
Salmeron lived in the Village Little neighborhood in Agoikago as a young man when his family first emigrated to the SH.BA
“I remember that my mum was (say), ‘Hey, go hide, immigration is around this path,” “Salmeron said recently.”
“Then, I see (that) again, what’s going on,” he said, calling it “scary.”
Salmeron has been an American citizen for decades, but he has had his meetings with the implementation of immigration. In 2007, his wife appeared at the United States Consulate in Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua, in order to obtain her permanent residence Amerlcan, he said. Then she was interned, that is, Salmeron was separated from his wife and son. She was able to return to the US about 10 years ago, and since then she received her green card, he said.
Now, the Salmeron family faces various concerns about their business this time, that is, how long will they be able to wait for things?
Salmeron said the business was so slow that it closed the truck for a few days after the inauguration. Things have chosen a few weeks from the initial announcement of an immigration blow, as people returned to their normal lives and work.
But he said if things go on this way, he may have to close a few days of the week – or all.
“Probably probably one of my first two months of the worst of the year,” said Salmeron, who is selling on the road for 25 years. “Even during Covid’s time, it wasn’t that bad. … Outside people could eat outside, so we never closed. “
By anticipating slower business in the winter, Salmeron normally stores some money to rent for the parking lot where he parks his truck, but he said he is fighting to attract the necessary funds together. He says he will give him a few more weeks.
Ramirez said Dulceria de Aurora is thinking of providing shipments, so people who do not want to leave their homes can still order their products.
“(Before), we don’t need it,” Ramirez said. “People would just come to us.”
Customers usually came a week, if not months, in advance to order ordered Pinatas for birthdays, holidays, religious celebrations and bachelorette parties, the shop owners said. The family makes about 20 to 30 pininas a week, so the orders were quickly filled. But no more, they said.
In general, for businesses in the United States, sales fell 0.9% in January, according to reporting from the Associated Press, a sharper decrease than experts predicted and the largest decline in one year. The cause is likely to be a combination of factors, from historically cold temperatures to diminishing consumer confidence. Trump administration tariff plans can also affect how retailers do their business and how customers respond forward, according to reports.
Among economic insecurity, however, many businesses owners in the country and across the country have shown support for the immigrant community. Nationwide – including in Aurora and Chicago – many businesses closed their doors on February 3 in protest as part of “Day without Immigrants”. Both elotes Gus and Dulceria de Aurora closed their businesses that day.
However, although they are making efforts to show support to other migrant clients, these local businesses say there are only as much as they can.
“Whenever they come and they talk and they are so worried about it,” Salmeron told his clients without documents. “Many of them say,” Oh, I have to save money because, if something happened to me, I have to save because I will go. “”
The Hispanic Regional Chamber of Commerce Aurora expects regular workshops for Hispanic business owners in the area, Garcia said, and its organization hopes to use them to address some of the concerns that immigrant business owners have expressed in recent weeks.
For now, they are advising some business owners to create online and social media tools for buying their products, in response to lower persons sales.
On February 24, for example, Garcia said a worker was planned in Amoremio at 33 W. New York St. in the aurora. She said she intended to help business owners compare income from this year to previous years and make plans for lower costs and expenses without lowering staff.
Regular workshops are free and offered in Spanish, in cooperation with the State Senate Karina Villa, D-West Chicago; Rep rep of Barbara Hernandez, D-Aurora; Illinois small business development center; non -profit social services neighboring project; Chicago Casa Michoacan -based community organization; and international influence women.
In the future, Garcia said, they hope to bring an immigration lawyer to advise local businesses owners.
But the extension of fear within the migrant community Aurora lies outside the right business.
Rios said she talks to her children about what is happening. They have non -documentary friends who tell them they are afraid to meet ice. One asked Rio’s daughter if she could take care of her cat if she had to leave the US
And while the community awaits the uncertainty about what immigration implementation will look like in the coming years, the owners of Dulceria de Aurora worry about what the community will lose. Lorena and Martin Ramirez said they see the store as a microcosm of Mexico – many of their products are imported from there.
“Since many people cannot return to Mexico, and, you know, return and so on, they would come here,” Lorena Ramirez explained. “They would be like,” Oh, I remember this when I was a kid, I remember this candy, I remember this drink. Can you bring this? “”
She said when families joined, parents would show the things they like as children in Mexico. But store owners have seen much less than these last weeks.
“They would try to tell them (their families) everything they once had when they were children – you know, the memories,” Ramirez said. “Now it’s like, they don’t even want to come. They don’t want to bring them here to try it.”
mmorrow@chicagotribune.com