Manuel Vazquez, owner of Coya artisanal ice cream, poses for a photo as he carries a tray of ice cream into the kitchen of his store in Fort Myers, Florida, the United States, February 26, 2024.
Marco Bello for NPR
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Manuel Vazquez, owner of Coya artisanal ice cream, poses for a photo as he carries a tray of ice cream into the kitchen of his store in Fort Myers, Florida, the United States, February 26, 2024.
Marco Bello for NPR
FORT MYERS– Manuel Vasquez says he remembers when the exodus began. One by one, members of this community began to disappear.
It started about a year ago, in May 2023, when a new law was signed into law by governor – then presidential candidate – Ron DeSantis.
This law is considered one of the strictest in the country when it comes to immigration.
Among other things, SB1718 penalizes employers who use undocumented labor, prohibits undocumented individuals from having a driver’s license, and defines driving an undocumented person in the state of Florida like human trafficking. It also requires hospitals to include questions about immigration status.
The result was a flight of immigrants who left the state. And many of those who stayed behind say it has led to a terrifying rise in anti-immigrant sentiment.
For decades, Florida has been synonymous with Latin American immigration. In Florida, about 1 in 5 people are foreign-born. Nearly a million people are undocumented.
Vasquez, an ice cream parlor owner, says most of his customers are immigrants and many of them panicked when the law was passed.
“They weren’t sure what was going to happen next. They had no choice but to drive to work and were worried. ‘What if I don’t make it home?’ They said: “What is happening to my family, to my children?”
He estimates that about 30 percent of his clients have left, mostly to the Carolinas, Georgia or other neighboring states. This exodus, he says, was a major blow to his business. “It was like a second pandemic.”
Manuel Vazquez (right), owner of Coya artisanal ice cream, and an employee cut tomatoes in the kitchen in Fort Myers, Florida, United States, February 26, 2024.
Marco Bello for NPR
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Manuel Vazquez (right), owner of Coya artisanal ice cream, and an employee cut tomatoes in the kitchen in Fort Myers, Florida, United States, February 26, 2024.
Marco Bello for NPR
According to a recent Gallup poll, far more Americans view immigration as the most pressing problem facing the United States (28%) than a month ago (20%). Immigration has now come before the government as the most commonly cited problem in the United States.
And anti-immigrant speeches have also increased. Modern Republicans are significantly more likely than Democrats to use dehumanizing language to describe immigration, according to a study from Stanford University and the University of Michigan.
The study also found a “striking similarity between the way Mexican immigrants are portrayed today and the way Chinese immigrants were portrayed during the era of Chinese exclusion in the late 19th century.”
Vasquez, a native of Mexico, sees anti-immigrant sentiment as anti-Latino. He has lived in the United States for around twenty years and says he has seen the situation evolve: he believes that it has become almost obligatory for presidential candidates to target Hispanics.
Disinformation about the border and immigration has indeed become a centerpiece of this election year. Immigrants portrayed as a threat by politicians at all levels make dramatic headlines almost every day. At the local level, states like Texas and Florida have clashed with the federal government, accusing the Biden administration of inaction, saying they have no choice but to pass their own immigration laws .
A spokesperson for Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis told NPR that the governor signed the law “to protect Floridians.”
But at a local farmers’ market, Ana Maria Perez, a fruit seller, says she is careful when driving, even though she is a permanent resident. “If you have dark skin,” Perez says, “the police here will arrest you for any reason.”
Perez says she has a son who is in college here in Florida. But when he graduates in a year, she and her husband want to go north.
Not everyone in Fort Myers is anti-immigration, she points out. But she says racism has intensified here. “I feel like… something has awakened.” She says. “A sleeping monster.”
It is difficult to say how many undocumented immigrants left Florida after the passage of SB1718. Most people NPR spoke with in and around Fort Myers said leaving the state, or planning to do so, was a daily discussion.
“Now people call it a ghost town,” says a woman named Mari.
NPR is withholding Mari’s last name because she fears retaliation for driving immigrants in and out of Florida. There’s a reason for that: Under Florida law, undocumented immigrants can’t drive. Thus, an informal transport system exploded.
A woman who drives migrants across the country poses for a portrait in Fort Myers, Florida, the United States, February 26, 2024.
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A woman who drives migrants across the country poses for a portrait in Fort Myers, Florida, the United States, February 26, 2024.
Marco Bello for NPR
It’s called Raites. Like on the rides.
Mari, who is a permanent resident, is a will treat. For half the price of an Uber or Lyft, she takes children to school in her minivan when their undocumented parents are afraid to leave the house. She takes people to work. She even does shopping for families.
She also drives immigrants who want to leave Florida to other states. Especially in the north. She says she makes these trips at night because she is afraid of being arrested by the police.
In a sleepy Fort Myers mall, flyers and advertising cards raitero services are everywhere.
The mall is pretty empty and it’s hard not to notice the white car parked covered in the Make America Great Again and Donald Trump decals.
It is owned by the mall’s ice cream parlor owner, Thomas Haueter. “I’ve never really been into politics,” he says. “But I really like Trump.”
Haueter is a Swiss and American citizen. He has been here for almost 40 years. I ask him what he thinks about the fact that his store is in an immigrant neighborhood and that his presidential candidate is promising mass evictions.
He hesitates. “Ahhh… I don’t know how it’s going to happen. You know, certainly the criminals with a criminal record, they have to go. I think the first thing is to secure this border and then let’s decide what to do with the people. ” everything here.”
But for many here, there is no time to wait and see.
Ramiro Ruiz, chef and owner of Mexican restaurant 2 Sabores, poses for a photo with his wife XYZ at their restaurant in Fort Myers, Florida, United States, February 26, 2024.
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Ramiro Ruiz, chef and owner of Mexican restaurant 2 Sabores, poses for a photo with his wife XYZ at their restaurant in Fort Myers, Florida, United States, February 26, 2024.
Marco Bello for NPR
Two stores away, in a Mexican restaurant, owner Ramiro Ruiz remembers a woman who arrived a few months ago. She sold her house for a third of its value. She desperately wanted to leave Florida.
“Imagine. She was giving away everything she had worked for over the last 20 or 30 years. A mortgage. A house.” Ruiz says the fear here isn’t just anecdotal. “I’m experiencing this. I’ve seen it with my own eyes.”
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