L.A. car wash tries to survive ICE raids

The car wash hadn't yet opened for the day, but its owner was already on edge.

- BY KATE LINTHICUM

GENARO MOLINA Los Angeles Times THE MANAGER of an L.A. car wash targeted by ICE raids this summer wipes down a window this month.

He scanned the street for law enforcement vehicles and hit refresh on a crowd-sourced map that showed recent immigration sweeps.

“They were busy in our area yesterday,” he warned his employees. “Be careful.”

But except for staying home, there were few precautions that the workers, mostly men from Mexico, could take.

The business is located along one of L.A.’s busiest thoroughfares. Workers are exposed to the street as they scrub, wax and buff the parade of vehicles that streams in between 7 a.m. and 4 p.m., seven days a week.

Immigration agents descended on the business multiple times this summer as part of a broader campaign against L.A. car washes. Masked men hauled away around a dozen workers, most of whom were swiftly deported. The Times is not identifying the business, the owner or the workers.

The raids had spooked remaining employees and many had stopped showing up to work. The replacements the owner hired were mostly other immigrants who showed him Social Security cards that he hoped were legitimate.

Still, it was an open secret that the car wash industry, which paid low wages for backbreaking labor, largely attracted people without legal status.

"Americans don’t want to do this work," the owner said.

After the raids, he had been forced to close for stretches during the typically lucrative summer months. He was now operating normally again, but sales were down, he had maxed out his credit cards and he was unsure whether his business would survive. Clients frightened by the raids were staying away.

"My target is to pay the rent, pay the insurance and pay the guys," the owner told his manager as they sipped coffee in the early morning November chill and waited for their first customer.

"That's it."