Thousands of Hartford-area businesses could be impacted by deportations: nonprofit

As the Trump administration takes new action to enforce its immigration policy, we're taking a look at what that means here in our state.

Whether you support more deportation enforcement or not, it could have a sizable impact on the shops and services many people use every day.

When it comes to helping immigrant businesses, Art Feldman’s nonprofit International Hartford has been at the forefront.

As the Trump administration ramps up immigration enforcement and deportations, Feldman said the economic impact would be felt in the greater Hartford area.

“You'd be going to your neighborhood retailer, restaurant, dry cleaner, hair salon, grocery store and you find the doors closed,” he said.

Feldman estimates that with immediate deportations, 1,600 businesses in Hartford County would be at risk of closing. That would effect about 200 in the city of Hartford.

He said this would be a big hit to the tax base of many cities and towns.

“Every tax up and down the line is paid by immigrants, whether they're authorized or unauthorized,” Feldman said.

He’s making an effort to educate immigrant property and business owners on asset protection, written financial plans, giving power of attorney to a trusted person, and consolidating all their information.

“So all their bank accounts, their property deeds, their mortgages their car loans, everything should be written down into one book,” Feldman said.

Glenn Formica, an immigration attorney based in New Haven, said the push to educate can help, but also comes with risks.

“That close friend or that power of attorney can be misused or abused,” Formica said.

He said the current climate has pushed some undocumented business owners to leave everything behind. Formica used a client who runs a home healthcare agency as an example.

“He’s about to leave a lot of his patients. The payroll won’t run,” he said.

He also said some clients are leaving the country permanently by choice and worries about the future.

“Will America be great when it no longer has immigrants?” he said.

International Hartford said it’s planning to have these financial workshops in the future.