President Donald Trump\u2019s immigration policies has left the streets of his largely migrant neighbourhood in Queens, New York empty.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s almost dead out here,\u201d said Nader, a Palestinian-American who like others in this article declined to give his full name.<\/p>\n
He described his neighbours\u2019 trepidation as having contributed to the worst business in his 35 years in the furniture trade.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have a lot of customers \u2014 especially from Guatemala \u2014 and nobody is coming to the streets [to] buy furniture,\u201d he said, explaining that people fear arrest and deportation.<\/p>\n
The main square in Corona, Queens was once a bustling meeting point at the heart of the predominantly Hispanic neighborhood but is now quiet with little foot traffic.<\/p>\n
Sometimes three days go by without a single sale, said 57-year-old Nader, now facing an uncertain future.<\/p>\n
Occupying a spot next to Corona\u2019s main drag, Roosevelt Avenue, Nader said \u201cI never thought it would end like this\u201d as he contends with unaffordable rent.<\/p>\n
His customers were often undocumented \u2014 like many of the people in the melting pot neighborhood, now fearful of the mass deportations threatened by Republican Trump.<\/p>\n
Faced with uncertainty, people are wary of committing to purchasing a bed, a mattress or chest of drawers when they might be forced to leave at a moment\u2019s notice, Nader said.<\/p>\n
Local clothing stores, grocers, remittance offices and food stands also complain that business has fallen by around half since the beginning of the year.<\/p>\n
Customers at phone stores have also halved, said Javier, a 31-year-old Mexican, who reported his clients have cut back on their phone plans, while others pay the minimum to avoid losing their number.<\/p>\n
Most prefer to wait to buy a new device, he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople used to spend without issue. \u2018I have a job, I have money.\u2019 Now they leave work and may not make it home,\u201d said Javier.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
President Donald Trump\u2019s immigration policies has left the streets of his largely migrant neighbourhood in Queens, New York empty. \u201cIt\u2019s almost dead out here,\u201d said Nader, a Palestinian-American who like others in this article declined to give his full name. He described his neighbours\u2019 trepidation as having contributed to the worst business in his 35 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7164,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7163","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7163","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7163"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7163\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7165,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7163\/revisions\/7165"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7164"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7163"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7163"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7163"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}