Wave Wire Services
LOS ANGELES — More than 850 small businesses that have faced federal immigration enforcement-related economic disruption will receive a combined $3.6 million in grants through a second funding round of a Los Angeles County program.
Grants come from the Small Business Resiliency Fund, a program launched by the county Board of Supervisors last September to provide direct financial assistance to small businesses in need. Dollars for the program come from the county’s Care First Community Invest program.
Award notifications are being issued by third-party administrator AidKit in coordination with the county Department of Economic Opportunity and fiscal sponsor SoCal Grantmakers.
In December, the county released about $1.53 million in grants from the first round of the program that helped 367 small businesses. An analysis from the Department of Economic Opportunity and the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corporation found the county lost an estimated 11,730 jobs, $932 million in labor income, and $2.5 billion in economic output from June to December 2025.
During a morning news conference March 12, county Supervisor Hilda Solis said she introduced a motion last summer in response to the harm being done by the Trump administration’s immigration policies. The federal government has defended its immigration enforcement actions, saying they are targeting “illegal” immigrants who are the “worst of the worst” criminals.
“They continue today on an even larger scale, spreading fear and uncertainty across many of our communities,” Solis said. “Families are in constant fear, as well as their children and employers.
“Workers, as we know, are being torn away from their job sites,” Solis added. “People are being snatched from their homes, streets, bus stops, parks, and even their cars. We’ve seen it with our own eyes, and there’s no refuting that these actions not only terrorize our families, but they are having a devastating impact on our small businesses, who rely on this workforce that’s being impacted.”
She emphasized the first round of the program was so successful the county agreed to conduct a second funding round. Solis noted that in her district she had 146 eligible small businesses that were left unfunded. So, the supervisor also presented the Department of Economic Opportunity with a $649,000 check — money from her discretionary dollars — to support those remaining businesses.
Kelly LoBianco, director of the Department of Economic Opportunity, reiterated the program is a tool to provide immediate financial relief for small businesses.
“Our county, especially our immigrant owners and neighbors, continue to bear the weight of this disruption to their normal operations,” LoBianco said.
Stephen Cheung, president and CEO of the county Economic Development Corporation, called small businesses the backbone of the county’s economy and said that many of them were founded and powered by immigrant entrepreneurs.
“As our recent analysis found, immigrant and undocumented workers help generate an estimated $253.9 billion in economic output — about 17% of the county’s gross domestic product — underscoring why programs like the Small Business Resiliency Fund are so important to help businesses stabilize during disruptions and continue creating jobs and opportunity across the region,” Cheung said.
Entrepreneurs such as brick-and-mortar owners, sidewalk vendors, independent contractors and some customer facing-based businesses who have less than 100 employees and $6 million in revenue, and have experienced direct impacts from federal immigration enforcement can apply for the program, LoBianco said.
