Daytona Beach News-Journal -Business owners notice drop in immigrant population

But during the past six months, Castillo has found himself waiting, at times impatiently, for customers to trickle in.

"I may not be able to handle another year like this," he said. "If things get any slower, even I may have to return to Mexico."

Tough immigration laws and a tough job market are forcing legal and illegal Hispanic immigrants to leave the area in search of jobs elsewhere, according to business owners and community advocates. Some immigrants are even returning to homes in Mexico, they say.

Statistics aren't available because the drop-off is still occurring and involves undocumented immigrants, who are not included in official population counts.

But the trend appears to be unfolding in communities that swelled with undocumented immigrants and people without families who moved here to find work during a construction boom in the mid-2000s. School district officials, however, say they are not yet seeing enrollment declines in Northwest Volusia schools -- a likely indication that immigrants with deeper roots are choosing to stay, for now.

In Castillo's case, he purchased a home, has children enrolled in school and relies on profit from his 6-year-old business, Panaderia Michoacan, to pay his mortgage, car insurance and children's needs.

Some departing immigrants are looking for job opportunities in larger cities, while others are simply returning to their native land, advocates say.

"Many are leaving to Mexico; others are going to Texas or Arkansas," said Daisy Hernandez, who is from El Salvador and owns Daisy's Haircuts along East New York Avenue in DeLand.

Ana Bolanos, director of Alianza de Mujeres Activas in Seville, said some are looking for a second chance in Mexico.

"I've known people who have left to Mexico," Bolanos said. "They sold their home, took their money to set up a business there."

Bolanos said some undocumented immigrants are feeling pressure from increased enforcement of immigration laws, which has prompted employers to more closely check the validity of Social Security numbers.

Francisco Escobedo, a pastor with Iglesia Nueva Bethel in Pierson, said his congregation went from 40 regular churchgoers to about half that in less than a year.

"Some have left with the entire family," Escobedo said.

While it's not a massive exodus, some business owners say the shift is noticeable enough to make them nervous about the survival of their businesses.

A Pierson business owner said his clientele, largely from the Mexican community, has dwindled since December.

"Who is going to keep the ferneries and businesses around here alive?" said Patrick Patel, owner of Alice Food & Grocery in Pierson, who is himself an immigrant from India.

"This is not good for business," Patel said, standing behind the counter at his shop on North Center Street, which locals know as "little Mexican store."

At least three businesses in northwest Volusia -- two adjacent to Patel's business -- have shut down within the last five months and the storefronts remain vacant.

The impact is being felt among business owners catering to Mexicans in East Volusia as well.

Felix Peralta, owner of Placita Supermarket on Mason Avenue in Daytona Beach, said he began noticing fewer Latino customers in November.

"All the Mexicans are leaving," Peralta said recently. "I don't know where they're going, but I know some of them already left."

Despite those changes, schools in the Pierson-Seville area are not experiencing a loss of pupils, officials say.

Susan Johnson, advocate with the Title 1 Migrant Program at Taylor Middle-High School in Pierson, said the school's population of migrant students is holding steady, while Jean-Michel Hilaire , Johnson's counterpart at Pierson Elementary School, has not noticed a drastic decline at the school.

Most of the people leaving have not been in the United States a long time, said Pedro Lopez, 35. Lopez, who has four U.S.-born children, recently held a good-paying job in construction in Daytona Beach and Orlando. He now picks fern alongside his wife.

"We are waiting for the storm to pass," said Lopez, who was born in Guerrero, Mexico, and has lived in Pierson for more than a decade.

Immigrants choosing to stay "want what everybody else wants -- the best for their children," said Lucy Mancilla , sister of the late farmworker advocate Alfredo Bahena. "There are many who have adapted themselves very well here."

Like Castillo, other Hispanic business owners say they will hold on and hope for a turnaround.

Iracen Garcia, 32, is now cleaning offices to supplement her income and help keep her Daytona Beach grocery store open.

"If it were only for the business, I think we would have already closed our doors," said Garcia, wiping the dust from the shelves at her business, Morelos Mexican Store , at 1286 N. Nova Road. "People here are only spending what they need to survive. They only buy the necessary food."