An anonymous reader of The New York Times Magazine worried on Friday about getting their immigrant neighbors deported if they reported their illegal business practice to authorities.
The writer’s neighbors, who are from Venezuela, began working on cars in their driveway and yard when the location for their auto shop reportedly became unavailable, the unnamed individual wrote in the magazine’s newsletter, “The Ethicist.” Because of the illegality of the family’s “shade tree” business, the reader worried that this practice would drive down the property value of their neighborhood while they planed to sell their home in the next few years.
“I’m uncomfortable raising this with the family because I doubt they can do much without losing income. Moving to a new garage would obviously be costly,” the reader wrote. “And if I talk to them and the outcome is unsatisfactory, I’d be the obvious culprit for any report to the city. Our friendly terms would disappear.”
The reader then worried that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents would aggressively respond to the neighbors’ business if she reported them to local authorities.
“I’m also reluctant to report because the family is from Venezuela. (They mentioned having green cards, though I never asked.) I’m afraid that even a code violation could draw attention from ICE, which has an aggressive, unpleasant presence in my city,” the person continued.
Lmao. This person is asking the NYT what to do about Venezuelan neighbors who run an illegal auto shop in their front yard, sometimes w/ 15 cars lined up.
The writer is worried that reporting them might get them deported. https://t.co/mrPaq3cnbN pic.twitter.com/bDBy8BGduv
Should the reader report their neighbors' illegal auto body shop?— Chuck Ross (@ChuckRossDC) February 6, 2026
The writer also mentioned that the number of cars and the manner in which they are parked violated city codes.
The Times’ ethicist, Kwame Anthony Appiah, advised that the person communicated with the immigrant neighbors so they can stop their practices without things escalating. He also noted that municipal-code complaints rarely summoned ICE agents.
Anti-ICE sentiments have spread across the U.S. following the deaths of Renee Good, who hit an ICE agent with her car on Jan. 7, and Alex Pretti, who was shot by a Border Patrol agent at a protest in mid-January. Footage from Jan. 13 showed Pretti spitting at immigration enforcement officers and kicking the tail light of their vehicle at a protest just 11 days before his death.
Democrats in Minnesota, where the deaths of Good and Pretti occurred, called on ICE to leave the state and have compared them to Nazis. Democratic Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz compared ICE’s presence in Minneapolis to Anne Frank’s experience while she hid from Nazis during the occupation of the Netherlands during World War II.
Border czar Tom Homan announced on Wednesday that “unprecedented cooperation” from state and local officials would allow the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to withdraw 700 ICE agents from Minnesota.
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