Pennsylvania Coffee Shop Latest to Close Following ICE Detention

An ICE officer wears a body-worn camera in Washington, D.C., in March 2024. Photo by Erica Knight/U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Public domain via DVIDS.

The owner of a two-location Pennsylvania coffee company called City Watch Coffee announced that she plans to sell the business and eventually relocate her family to Cambodia after her husband and co-owner was detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

It is the latest in a series of ICE enforcement actions that have disrupted independent small coffee businesses across the country over the past year.

City Watch Coffee, which has two locations in the Lebanon Valley, confirmed in a Facebook post that co-owner Ratha San has been detained by ICE. An ICE detainee search shows that San is being held at the Moshannon Valley ICE Processing Center.

San’s wife wrote in a Facebook post that San came to the United States legally through family sponsorship as a baby, having been born in a refugee camp in Thailand after his family fled Cambodia.

“He was not smuggled in, nor did he sneak across the border. His family came to the United States legally through family sponsorship many years ago,” the post stated. 

It went on to say that San made “some poor decisions when he was a teenager and very young adult” more than 20 years ago and that his immigration status was revoked as a result. 

“Over the past 20+ years, Ratha grew, changed, and dedicated himself to becoming a better person,” the post continued. “He built a family, worked hard, gave back to the community, and became an entrepreneur.”

City Watch Coffee, which opened in 2022 and describes itself as a “community-driven” coffee business, said its Cleona location will close on Monday, Aug. 31, while its Lebanon location will remain open “until further notice.” The post said that the business will “soon be up for sale.”

“As much as I want to be angry and hateful about everything that has happened, I can’t let that consume me,” San’s wife wrote. “We have to continue to be a positive example for our older sons and young daughters. Instead, we will focus on building a new life for ourselves, our newborn, and our three-year-old daughter as we plan to relocate to Cambodia so that we can be together as a family.”

City Watch joins a growing number of independent coffee-focused businesses whose operations have been disrupted by ICE detentions involving owners, employees or their family members over the past 12 months.

Rossville, Georgia

In May 2026, the family behind Buenos Dias Coffee in Rossville, Georgia, announced plans to close the three-year-old cafe, sell the business and move to Mexico following the ICE detention of owner Leticia Gomez’s mother, Laura Secundino-Portano.

“Because family is our highest priority, my siblings and I have decided to close the shop and relocate to Mexico so that we can remain together and support her,” the family said in a Facebook statement.

Arrest records obtained by WTVC showed that Georgia State Patrol officers arrested Secundino-Portano on April 21 for driving without a valid license and two other traffic violations. The records said she was subsequently transferred to ICE custody.

Jacksonville, Florida

Artessence Coffee Shop temporarily closed in August 2025 while a co-owner attempted to locate his wife and business partner after she was transferred to ICE custody.

The woman had been arrested Aug. 2 during what her family described as a mental-health crisis. A Department of Homeland Security filing subsequently asserted that there was probable cause to consider her removable from the United States, according to local coverage of her case.

The owners then sold the company to Jacksonville residents Soner and Gina Acar in September 2025, according to the Jacksonville Business Journal.

Oceanside, California

The development of a permanent shop for Sands Coffee Roasters was interrupted in February 2026 when founder Assim Alkhawaja was detained while working as a rideshare driver to help finance the expansion.

Alkhawaja was dropping passengers at Camp Pendleton when he was detained on Feb. 16, according to NBC 7 San Diego. His family said he had an active work permit, a pending asylum application and no criminal record.

Alkhawaja was held at the Otay Mesa Detention Center for approximately eight days before being released on bond. He was placed in removal proceedings and required to wear a GPS monitor, according to a subsequent Guardian report based on interviews with Alkhawaja and his attorney.

Workers Detained 

Beyond owner-operators, coffee businesses all over the U.S. have been affected by the detention of workers and farm employees.

In Brooklyn Park, Minnesota, Crumbs & Coffee closed after ICE detained cook Jorge Leonardo Vergara Rubio in December 2025. Co-owner Marcio Luis De Morais told CBS Minnesota that plainclothes agents entered the cafe as customers before another agent entered and claimed that there was a vehicle collision outside in order to draw Rubio into the parking lot. The Minnesota Daily later reported that the cafe closed permanently after the loss of its cook, a 60% sales decline and two months of missed rent payments.

In Oregon, the owner of Elka Bee’s Coffee told KOIN 6 News that federal immigration authorities detained two employees in October 2025 despite the employees having permits to work in the United States.

ICE agents also affected coffee production during the 2025 harvest on Hawaii’s Big Island. Community members told Honolulu Civil Beat that more than 100 coffee farm workers along the island’s southern coast had been arrested and removed, though ICE did not provide the outlet with arrest totals. Farmers said other seasonal workers, including some with legal residency or work authorization, declined to travel to Hawaii because they feared detention.

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