Taqueria Guerrero had barely any customers by late November — a sign of the pervasive fear across the New Orleans area from then-impending federal immigration enforcement operations. Many of the Mid-City restaurant’s Hispanic customers were staying home.

Then the taqueria announced it would temporarily shutter, starting in December, until things felt safer. Swiftly people turned up in droves , intent on bolstering the business and its staff for the uncertainty ahead.

On the last day before closing, a line snaked down the block on North Carrollton Avenue as people waited their turn to help; the restaurant sold out of food by the evening.

“I didn’t know there was so much love out there,” Taqueria Guerrero proprietor Jesus Martinez told me the next day. “But people really showed us.”

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