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Enriqueta Soriano has sold bejeweled, colorful ball gowns for quinceañeras, weddings and other formal events for 30 years in Oakland’s Fruitvale district, a majority Latino area where one in three residents is foreign-born.
The Mexican immigrant raised six children and saved for retirement with income from her once-prosperous store.
But since reports spread in June of masked federal immigration agents raiding Los Angeles workplaces and Home Depot parking lots, few customers have entered Soriano’s shop. The nosedive in sales came as local merchants were already struggling with public safety concerns that hurt the area’s reputation and drove customers away in recent years, said the 66-year-old…