Fall River plows forward amid tariffs and harsh immigration policies

Kaleb Santos, 1, peered through the railing at the Fall River State Park Pier as his mother, Lizzette, walked their dog, Kiba. The city is grappling with the economic impact of tariffs and tough immigration policies. The pier overlooks the ships at Battleship Cove, a popular tourist attraction.John Tlumacki/Globe Staff

FALL RIVER — On a recent morning at Portugalia Marketplace in the center of this city, customers perusing through the grocery store found all sorts of Portuguese offerings — olive oils, wines, snacks, and prepared meals, such as traditional codfish casserole and roasted octopus.

But Michael Benevides’s fulsome shelves and bustling store belied a challenging moment for a business that relies on imports and immigrants to run, a rippling uncertainty felt across the South Coast, where concerns about costs are top of mind.

There are “almost exclusively imported products on our shelves. So everything that we sell is subject to tariffs, unfortunately,” he said. “The truth of the matter is that, you know, we can absorb some, but we can’t absorb it all. And some of that has to be passed on to the end consumer.”

It’s a challenge that most businesses in the region and the country that depend on foreign imports are facing, he said.

His company, which serves the broader Portuguese-speaking diaspora from Cape Verde, Brazil, and beyond, prefers to recruit bilingual workers, but over the last few years that has become tough and the recent changes in immigration policies have likely worsened that challenge.

Even though Benevides only hires workers with documentation, “the well is drying up in terms of people” regardless, he said.

Michael Benevides is the Vice President of Portugalia Marketplace, a Portuguese specialty grocery store in Fall River. His business imports the majority of the products it sells which are subject to tariffs, he said. John Tlumacki/Globe Staff

Businesses like Portugalia are grappling with the deep uncertainty of the last six months.

Local businesses are trying to find ways to mitigate against the impact of tariffs, said Mike O’Sullivan, CEO of One SouthCoast Chamber, a business group with more than a thousand members, half of whom come from Greater Fall River.

“If the tariffs are really going to raise their prices or raise their costs significantly, they’ve got to be careful with what they do,” he told the Globe. “We’ve got . . . companies that are really concerned about what’s happening overseas with the tariffs.”

Immigration troubles, too, have rippled through some sectors of Fall River’s economy, like manufacturing and hospitality.

“The hospitality field really has to work to find new ways to recruit people. Because those workers, they’re just not available,” O’Sullivan said.

Kenneth Fiola Jr., the executive vice president of Bristol County Economic Development Corporation, suggested that the dearth of workers that may result from tough immigration policies could be mitigated by a labor market where more people are coming back to work after COVID.

Fresh prepared food for sale at Portugalia Marketplace, a Portuguese specialty grocery store in Fall River. The business imports most of its products from abroad.John Tlumacki/Globe Staff

But the crackdown happening across the South Coast may also hurt the local economy as businesses could lose customers if immigrants become nervous about being out into the community, O’Sullivan said, in a city where more than 20 percent of the 95,000 residents are foreign-born.

“It’s naturally going to have an impact across all the sectors,” O’Sullivan said. “There’s a large number of immigrant employees who live in Fall River, that live in New Bedford, and vice versa. So, I mean, it’s a significant impact.”

Von Marie Moniz, who runs the South Coast Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, which helps minority small business owners and entrepreneurs in the region, said that immigrant communities are trying not to attract attention.

“What’s happening a lot is people are in hiding, they’re a little nervous to come out and be loud,” she said. “They don’t know what could happen.”

Some entrepreneurs in the region are choosing to do less marketing and increasingly rely on word of mouth to attract business, she said.

“Times are tough, so I think that we need to pull them together a little bit more,” Moniz said.

But while things have slowed down for the community, there is also a sense that people need to just move forward despite it all.

“When you’re running a business and you’re investing, in many cases, your life savings and you’ve got your family working there . . . and that’s how you’ve chosen to support your family . . . you have to keep plowing forward, and you have to just keep working hard,” O’Sullivan said.

Benevides at Portugalia said that Fall River needs its immigrants to bolster its workforce.

“As an immigrant, I think we need immigrants. We need immigrants to work,” he said. “We’ve had tremendous success with immigrants.”

A row of salt fish including salted cod for sale at Portualia Marketplace in Fall River.John Tlumacki/Globe Staff

Fall River, long a Democratic stronghold, went for President Trump in November, the first time the city voted for a Republican presidential candidate in a century. Voters cited the high cost of living and immigration behind their decision to vote for Trump.

But there could be buyer’s remorse among some voters as they see the extent of the changes his administration is imposing, said Fiola.

“I think people have now become frustrated,” he said. “It’s not what they expected, it’s not what they bought into, not only on immigration policy, but a whole bunch of other policies that are taking place. So I think, collectively, they’re disappointed.”

Three men walked past a mural on the side of a business in Downtown Fall River as they walk along South Main Street. John Tlumacki/Globe Staff

Mayor Paul Coogan said residents in Fall River are preoccupied by basic things such as housing costs, wages, and how much they pay for their groceries.

“It’s a bread-and-butter community,” he said. “When the rubber meets the road, they’re worried about the blue-collar issues.”

Fall River tends to be centrist in its politics, according to Fiola.

“The running joke is we’re either conservative Democrats or liberal Republicans,” he said. “We’re sort of in the middle as a city, but I think they’ll have their voices heard when they don’t like what things are going on on the national level.”