El País: Latino businesses collapse under deportation terror: ‘What is happening now is worse than what we experienced during Covid’

In January, just days after Donald Trump was sworn in as president, immigration agents came to Dana Beauty Salon in Mount Rainer, Maryland, located just two minutes from the Washington D.C. border. They were looking for one of the employees, an undocumented migrant, who was taken into custody and is being held at a detention center in New Hampshire pending a court hearing. That day changed the life of the salon’s owner, Daysi García. “They showed up one day, I think it was a Thursday. By the time the weekend came around, no one was coming in, our workers weren’t coming in for their shifts, not even the clients were coming in,” she recalls sadly.

“What is happening now is worse than what we experienced during Covid. Back then, people could put on a mask and come in. Now, they don’t even want to leave their homes,” says García.

Latino businesses collapse under deportation terror: ‘What is happening now is worse than what we experienced during Covid’

Meanwhile, Nero fiddles, Trump plays golf.

Civil rights groups denounce that 48 ICE detainees have been ‘forcibly disappeared’

19 March 2025

In the first week of March, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) conducted an “enhanced enforcement operation” in New Mexico that resulted in the arrest of 48 people, as reported by the agency itself. Their names, whereabouts, whether they have access to counsel and which agency is holding them are all unknown, according to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), which considers them to have been “forcibly disappeared.”

“This is not just a procedural issue, but a grave human rights violation,” said Rebecca Sheff, senior staff attorney at the ACLU of New Mexico. “When the government detains people and then their whereabouts are unknown and they are unreachable, it exempts them from the protection of the law. Families are left in agonizing uncertainty, desperate to contact their loved ones and ensure their safety. Enforced disappearances are prohibited by both our Constitution and international human rights laws,” she said.

“We are alarmed and disturbed that these four dozen New Mexican individuals remain unidentified and that insufficient transparency, oversight, and accountability has taken place to date regarding their whereabouts and wellbeing. We call on your offices to exercise the full extent of your authorities to determine their current status and ensure their safety,” the complaint states.

Civil rights groups denounce that 48 ICE detainees have been ‘forcibly disappeared’ | U.S. | EL PAÍS English