By Ruth Simon | Photography and video by Michelle Gustafson for WSJ
PHILADELPHIA -- Jeffrey Lee has cycled through more than 100 workers after agents arrested seven employees at his family's carwash last year. Some new hires couldn't last an hour on the job.
Masked Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents raided Complete Autowash on a chilly Tuesday morning in January 2025, eight days after President Trump's second inauguration.
The arrests of the seven workers, who ICE said were all in the country illegally, dealt a major blow to Lee's small family business. He has spent 15 months rebuilding. "It tested me at every level. Spiritual. Mental. Physical," he said. "When bad things happen, which they do, often, it's not about what happened, but how you move forward."
Business has picked up, but not consistently enough for Complete to return to profitability. It now cleans roughly 200 to 220 cars a day, down by about 80 from before the raid. Lee isn't sure how much of the current downturn stems from customers staying away since the ICE action and how much reflects stretched consumers.
"We were on shaky ground for a long time," said Lee, age 37. "It's still not stable, but it's more stable than it was."
The Trump administration has made stopping illegal immigration a priority. In the past year, it has conducted raids around the country targeting big businesses like Hyundai and, more often, smaller ones like Lee's. The goal: to make it harder for immigrants living in the U.S. unlawfully to work in the country, and create more jobs for Americans.
"Worksite enforcement remains a cornerstone of our efforts to protect public safety, national security, and economic stability," ICE said in a statement.
All but two of the employees had worked at Complete for a decade or more. Lee said he assumed that the workers were in the country legally. "They all presented Social Security cards and things like that," he said. "We don't dig too deep. We are just a carwash."
Full-service carwashes like Complete are becoming less common. Ninety percent of new carwashes are express operations offering automated cleanings overseen by one or two employees. Private-equity firms and other institutional investors have scooped up family-run operations or are building new carwashes that rely on a low labor model, said Eric Wulf, chief executive officer of the International Carwash Association.
Lee started learning the carwash business at age 8 or 9. He would spend weekends with relatives who owned a carwash in West Chester, Pa., rising at 5 a.m. to help his uncle open up.
Lee's parents -- who immigrated from South Korea before he was born -- purchased one of Philadelphia's oldest carwashes 19 years ago for roughly $1.5 million.
He started at Complete at age 18, working as a cashier. At the time, Lee was in a wheelchair after losing a leg and a portion of his pelvis when he was hit by a speeding car at age 14. These days he gets around on crutches.
Over time, Lee persuaded his dad to update the washing tunnel and add a second vacuum line to handle more cars. He hired graffiti artists to paint a Liberty Bell and "Exit Only" sign on one wall, and the family's names, written in Korean, on another.
Lee's father opened up the business the morning of the raid. A little after 9 a.m., more than a dozen ICE agents arrived, according to worker statements included in immigration court filings. They apprehended eight workers. ICE quickly released one, a U.S. citizen whose father was taken. The others were loaded into two large vans.
When Lee arrived, ICE and the employees were gone.
Department of Homeland Security records submitted in immigration court show that ICE acted based on information about undocumented workers at the carwash received by its tip line.
Six detained employees were from Mexico and one was from the Dominican Republic. One worker agreed to leave the country; a second was deported. Four were released on bond, and one remains in an ICE detention facility.
Thomas Griffin, an attorney representing the employees, said in an immigration court filing that ICE acted with "neither a warrant nor probable cause," violating the Constitution and its own laws and regulations. One employee was being sponsored for legal status by his American-born son, Griffin said.
Lee said he has since improved his screening process for potential new hires. "We are more stringent," he said.
After the raid, Lee quickly took to the phone, asking former employees for help to get the carwash staffed back up. The carwash reopened a day later with a skeleton crew of four.
The raid shook Philadelphia's immigrant community. It also brought an outpouring of job seekers. Lee cycled through about 120 people. Eighty failed. Of the 39 who passed the initial trial period, 19 remain.
New employees start wiping down cars emerging from the tunnel, then learn other roles. Twenty or more workers didn't last an hour. They moved too slow, couldn't pick up required skills, lacked a work ethic.
"Maybe I was overoptimistic about a person's skill set or ambitions," Lee said. "That was a disappointment."
Lee fine-tuned his approach. He started relying more on instinct to decide whether someone had potential, developed more patience and learned to overlook some flaws. With a core group in place, he now hires mostly via referral.
Sales dropped 35% after the raid, as customers stayed away, some for months. Lee briefly suspended a membership program for unlimited washes because the service wasn't up to snuff.
"It was complete chaos," Lee said. "Our service was horrible."
Complete paid an attorney $25,000 to deal with the Department of Homeland Security, put off plans to renovate the office and bathroom, and delayed a planned price increase. "How could I raise my prices when my service was poor?" Lee said.
The old crew ranged in age from about 20 to 50. The staff today is mostly in their 20s. Just two pre-raid employees remain on the job.
New hires start at $12 an hour, with raises for performance and good attendance, just as they did before the raid. Because of their seniority, the workers who were arrested were earning $15 to $18 an hour, plus tips.
Nathaniel Padua, 20, joined Complete last year after stints at fast-food restaurants. "My folks have been coming here for years and recommended me," he said. At Complete, "they were helping me learn how to work fast. They treat me like family."
As he did before the raid, Lee spends much of his day behind a plexiglass cashier's window littered with brightly colored Post-it Notes, stacks of car fresheners to one side. Additional fresheners, car mats and other supplies hang on the wall behind him.
Lee knows his regulars -- and most are. "Dude, you grew so much! How old are you?" he asked a ten-year-old, at the cashier's window with his mother. "He's growing into a fine young man," Lee told the mom. "You can always tell."
The operation remains a work in progress. "They didn't put the tire shine on?" Lee asked one customer. "I've got some new people out there, brother, so give me a moment."
"I know it's not the originals," the customer responds.
Write to Ruth Simon at Ruth.Simon@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
May 05, 2026 11:47 ET (15:47 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2026 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
Comments