JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2014 A viral video from a joint law enforcement operation involving Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is having an unintended impact on a local multicultural supermarket, even though the business had no involvement in the incident.<\/p>\n
The operation took place along Beach Boulevard on January 13, just feet away from Mi Pueblo, a popular multicultural grocery store. According to co-owner Juan Alvarez, the encounter happened about 25 feet from his business and has since scared customers away.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat began as a law enforcement operation along Beach Boulevard on January 13th quickly escalated, and all of it happened just steps away from Mi Pueblo,\u201d Alvarez said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey stopped right in front of the business and that escalated,\u201d Alvarez explained.<\/p>\n
>>> STREAM ACTION NEWS JAX LIVE <<<<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n He said the situation intensified rapidly when a woman exited her vehicle.<\/p>\n \u201cThen the lady got out of her truck and she started swinging and punching,\u201d Alvarez said.<\/p>\n Video of the confrontation, which shows the woman going to the ground, was captured on camera and quickly spread across social media. Alvarez said misinformation spread just as fast, linking his business to the ICE operation despite having no connection.<\/p>\n \u201cRumors started spreading. Customers were calling and saying, \u2018Hey, they said ICE is in your business taking people.\u2019 I mean, so many things people started saying,\u201d Alvarez said.<\/p>\n As the rumors circulated, Alvarez said customers stopped coming in during peak hours, worried that ICE agents were inside or targeting the store, something he insists is not true.<\/p>\n [DOWNLOAD: <\/b>Free Action News Jax app for alerts as news breaks<\/b><\/a>]<\/b><\/p>\n \u201cYes, I want to make that very clear, in this business, they were not looking for anybody here, nor were they detaining any customers or employees at all,\u201d Alvarez said.<\/p>\n Investigators say the arrest involved a woman identified as Jennifer Cruz, who is accused of attacking law enforcement during the operation. Cruz now faces multiple felony charges. <\/p>\n Alvarez emphasized again that the incident had nothing to do with Mi Pueblo.<\/p>\n His concern now is the broader impact such operations can have on nearby businesses.<\/p>\n \u201cI feel like they should put that into consideration when they\u2019re doing their operation,\u201d Alvarez said.<\/p>\n Alvarez hopes that setting the record straight will help restore trust and bring customers back to a business that has served the community for years.<\/p>\n [SIGN UP: <\/b>Action News Jax Daily Headlines Newsletter<\/b><\/a>] <\/b><\/p>\n Click here<\/b><\/a> to download the free Action News Jax news and weather apps, <\/b>click here<\/b><\/a> to download the Action News Jax Now app for your smart TV and <\/b>click here<\/b><\/a> to stream Action News Jax live.<\/b><\/p>\n Action News Jax Top Stories<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2014 A viral video from a joint law enforcement operation involving Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":523017,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5136],"tags":[130912,5229,12878,15621,10615,3188,723,5410,128772,7310,232653,232652,425,1450,21783,21782,25021,232650,232651,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-523016","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-jacksonville","8":"tag-alvarez","9":"tag-america","10":"tag-beach_boulevard","11":"tag-ben","12":"tag-cruz","13":"tag-fl","14":"tag-florida","15":"tag-ice","16":"tag-jackson_nicholas_brooks","17":"tag-jacksonville","18":"tag-jennifer_cruz","19":"tag-juan_alvarez","20":"tag-local","21":"tag-mi","22":"tag-nicholas","23":"tag-nicholas_brooks","24":"tag-p","25":"tag-pueblo_number","26":"tag-pueblo_number_2","27":"tag-united-states","28":"tag-united-states-of-america","29":"tag-unitedstates","30":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","31":"tag-us","32":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115911076378438631","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/523016","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=523016"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/523016\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/523017"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=523016"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=523016"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=523016"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}