The video was impressive. Food delivery workers scramble on his e-bike across a Chicago bridge and are chased by armed, masked federal agents executives. “Let’s get him!” cried the workers before they finally slip.
This week, the viral clip became the rally’s point for critics of President Donald Trump’s deportation machine. For Mike Peregudov, co-founder of E-Bike subscription service Whiz, it was an internal representation of the ab-sect terrifying delivery workers who explained to his team for several weeks in Chicago.
That’s because the threat of being taken away by Customs Border Protection (CBP), Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE), or one of many other agencies that help the administration increase the number of deportees, has now become measurable by Whiz’s own indicators.
“Why the With’s Fleet didn’t grow in Chicago last month,” Peregudov wrote in a LinkedIn post where he shared the clip there. “It’s getting much more difficult to deliver food orders in the city.”
Whiz is relatively new to Chicago, only launched in town a few months ago. However, in an interview with TechCrunch, Peregudov said that he was “growing really fast” in the summer, as he would have had bicycles gone from zero on the ground in March until around 300 by the end of July.
This growth has been encouraging for Whiz’s mission to provide safe, reliable and affordable bikes to delivery workers. For years, many of those same workers had to resort to mishmashes of products with questionable reliability, banning vehicles in some cities.
According to Peregudov, the dynamics changed in August when Trump threatened to send National Guard troops to the city. Not only has growth stopped, he said it has lost about 8% of its business. The threat of the National Guard and constant ice attacks surprised the food supply labor.
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“They’re afraid,” he said of the workers who brought their bikes back to Whis’ Chicago office. Whiz does not employ these gig economy workers. This will only rent E-bikes that can be obtained by people with a proper identification, Social Security number and credit card.
As US citizens and legal permanent residents were scooped up in similar attacks across the country, Peregudov said the fear was shared by both documented and undocumented immigrants.
“When an attack occurs, these people can do it [detain] When he realizes that he is legal here, they let him leave, but he loses those two weeks. ” he said.
Immigrant raids take place in most other cities run by Wiz, including New York, San Francisco and Philadelphia. But these locations have so far spared Trump’s more militaristic development.
The company also operates in Washington, DC, with President Trump bringing in National Guard troops. Strangely, Peregudov said that the business is actually in the country’s capital.
He attributes it to the fact that police and federal agents appear to be targeting delivery drivers who use gasoline mopeds without a license. It’s pushing more delivery workers to Wiz and its less regulated e-bikes, he said.
Peregudov, the immigrants themselves, declined to comment too much on the administration’s policies and actions. “I came here on a talent visa,” he said.
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