FAYETTEVILLE — Local Latin music groups are pointing to enhanced immigration enforcement in Northwest Arkansas as the culprit behind a decline in their booking schedules last year, a trend they fear may continue in 2026.
“It has affected us a lot,” said Eduardo Montalvo, guitarist and representative of local band Mariachi Joya Azteca.
“Our group has been working for seven years since its founding, and there was always an increase in work and market presence year after year, but that came to a halt with the arrival of President Trump,” said Montalvo, originally from Tampico, Tamaulipas, Mexico.
President Donald Trump’s administration has expanded immigration enforcement efforts across the country since he took office in January 2025. That has included increased operations by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers in Northwest Arkansas.
Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders has been supportive of the president’s efforts, pledging Arkansas National Guardsmen to assist immigration officials in September.
Amid the crackdown, immigration authorities operating in Northwest Arkansas have arrested numerous people. Some of those people have been arrested directly by ICE agents while others have been arrested by other law enforcement agencies, placed on immigration holds within county jails and then arrested by ICE while being held.
Local Latin music performers point to fears of deportation or harassment by immigration agents as making people not want to attend public events expected to bring out large numbers of Hispanic residents.
Montalvo recounted that between January and March, his band had practically no performances. He is worried the situation will not improve anytime soon.
“People were very scared,” he said. “They didn’t want to hold events. They canceled the ones they already had scheduled … and to this day it continues to affect us economically because we’re not working like we used to.”
Los Indecentes de HG is a local band performing norteno music, which the American Heritage Dictionary defines as “a style combining elements of folk, polka and American popular music.” That band faces a similar situation as Mariachi Joya Azteca, with at least two major events canceled in 2025.
“We have had some work, but very little,” said Ivan Vargas, vocalist and accordionist of Los Indecentes. “It happened to us and also to several friends in the industry; their gigs have been canceled because of this whole immigration situation.”
The situation is especially worrying because many artists depend entirely on music to support their families, “and right now they are without contracts and without work,” Vargas said.
If nothing changes, the Hispanic arts industry in Arkansas could be threatened, both musicians agreed. They fear the lack of bookings could lead to the breakup of some of the region’s Latino bands.
Potential risks include the arrests of artists with irregular immigration status or the departure of band members who would be forced to seek other sources of income, abandoning their artistic pursuits, they said.
“We’ve talked about it … the fear that many have when they go to an event, that they might get caught or that one of their bandmates might get caught,” Vargas said. “We do it with a lot of love and dedication, but it’s a difficult situation that we hope will change.”
Paz Aguilar, founder of Salvadorenos Unidos Para Arkansas, said the immigration enforcement operations have resulted in a visible decrease in Hispanic attendance at community events, such as during Hispanic Heritage Month celebrations.
However, she said strategic decisions helped minimize the impact on the Salvadoran Festival, held Aug. 2, which she said is a key event for funding her nonprofit organization’s community programs. Factors such as choosing a more secluded location for the event, the date and leveraging community contacts helped prevent a significant drop in attendance, Aguilar said.
Her organization will have to continue taking extraordinary measures to prevent its future events from suffering the same fate as other, more severely affected activities, she said.