Yakson had a delivery to pick up in Washington, DC’s Mount Pleasant neighborhood, but first he scanned the street for immigration officers. A white truck parked nearby looked suspicious. He lingered, peering through the truck window for signs of an agent. Only when it seemed clear did he dart inside the restaurant, rushing the pickup.
“People are scared,” he told CNN, his eyes still on the truck.
The Trump administration’s move to surge federal law enforcement into Washington, DC, has reshaped the daily rhythms of immigrant life in the nation’s capital. With ICE now riding alongside local police, many food delivery drivers – a workforce that includes many Venezuelan migrants – say they no longer feel safe waiting on street corners for orders.
Some have switched from mopeds to bikes to avoid attention or potential stops for traffic violations, while others have left the city altogether, leaving local businesses struggling with delayed orders, vanishing customers, and steep drops in sales. Dozens of delivery drivers in DC used to gather outside businesses while waiting for their phones to “ping” to signal the next pickup. Street corners that once pulsed with salsa, reggaetón and lively chatter have fallen silent since the start of Trump’s law enforcement push in the capital.
CNN has reported that in the first two weeks of Trump’s crackdown last month, there was a more than tenfold increase over the typical ICE arrest numbers for the district. Many residents in migrant-heavy neighborhoods now worry about being picked up by ICE, with delivery drivers especially fearful.
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