When he thinks back to June 2025, Melchor Moreno remembers the empty streets outside of his restaurant.
Neighboring businesses closed early or sometimes wouldn’t open at all. One weekday, he made just $500, hundreds short of what he needed to cover his overhead.
Moreno owns and operates La Chispa de Oro, a traditional Mexican restaurant on Cesar E. Chavez Avenue that’s been a Boyle Heights staple for more than 30 years. When Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations disrupted his and other Eastsiders’ businesses last summer, survey data collected by Boyle Heights Beat showed a sharp drop in sales; Moreno marked losses at around $7,000 per month that summer. But even when the raids slowed, the business never bounced back, Moreno said…