Do people at the Cherry Auction care if the ICE raid rumor hurt business?

FRESNO, Calif. (KSEE/KGPE) – A rumored ICE raid at the Cherry Avenue Auction severely affected attendance, but some say Councilmember Arias’ decision to publicly announce it was the right move.

On Thursday, June 12, Fresno City Council Member Miguel Arias said he had learned of an impending raid of the Cherry Auction Swap Meet and warned undocumented people not to go. The Cherry Auction refuted Arias’ warning, saying they knew nothing about any impending raid.

Nevertheless, vendors and customers at the Cherry Auction on Tuesday said Arias and others on social media caused a ripple effect that resulted in lower attendance and sales at the swap meet.

“Maybe $1,000?” Cherry Auction vendor Roberto said when asked how much money he lost due to Saturday’s lack of attendees.

According to Roberto, he “wouldn’t survive” if the drop in attendance was the same every Saturday going forward.

Cherry Auction customer, Eric Rollins, says he has been going to swap meets since he was a kid and often visits the Cherry Auction.

“Today is about 25% or so of normal,” Rollins said. “I understand that some of the fear, but I think it’s a little overblown.”

“There’s this misconception that ICE can show up wherever it wants, whenever it wants,” Rollins said. “The truth is, they have to have a court order.”

Roberto echoed Rollins’ sentiment, saying he feels safe at the Cherry Auction because it’s private property; he says he’s grateful to Fresno City Councilmember Miguel Arias for his warning, but he can’t deny it caused fear in the undocumented community.

“As a public servant – he’s doing his job,” Roberto said. “I’m hoping he had good intentions behind it because it affects everybody. It affects all of us out here.”

Another vendor, Gumaro, says he’s been a vendor for the past 25 years. Although every administration brings new fear to the undocumented community, Gumaro says no other administration has caused this much.

Gumaro feels the Trump administration is partly to blame for the chaos felt in the undocumented community – but so is social media.

“We didn’t have social media like we do now,” Gumaro said. “It’s all connected – You can use social media, but use it to help the community.”

Rollins says that law-abiding immigrants, undocumented or not, do not deserve to be intimidated.

“We’re not seeing the humanity on the one side,” Rollins said. “Most of them want to come and join the American dream.”

Rollins, a self-proclaimed “hardcore conservative,” says that though he may not be happy about undocumented immigrants who have lived in the United States for several years and have not applied for citizenship, he can’t deny the many contributions immigrants have made.

“The American dream can be accessed by anybody,” Rollins said. “Seeing each other’s basic humanity, having a conversation, it’ll open a lot of doors. It’ll open your eyes.”