A business owner in Hudson County, says a fake video of an ice raid at one of his restaurants is scaring customers away and threatening his livelihood.

The owner of La Pupusa Loca, says he was shocked to see the viral video on Tik Tok, falsely claiming federal immigration agents violently rounded up customers at the popular Eatery.

It comes as rumors about ice activity in other communities from Wildwood to Princeton are affecting businesses where many Latino residents shop and eat.

Raven Santana has the story.

I was I was in shock because, you know, I knew the truth.

But it was then reading through the comments, I was like, I was like, wow, people are believing him.

Elio Barrera, owner of one of the La Pupusa Loca Salvadorian restaurants, says he's still in disbelief over a false viral video that made his West New York location go from this to this overnight.

To see our max capacity fall and then to only seeing four tables, you know, it's it's very scary.

That's because a video posted to Tik Tok a week and a half ago falsely alleged that ICE had raided and arrested customers at the restaurant's location in Union City.

The video, which has since been taken down, reached more than 1.4 million views at one point.

In it, a voice in Spanish continues to describe a scene that Barrera says never happened.

Yesterday at 6 p.m., there was chaos at Pupusa number two in Union City.

Everything seemed normal and everyone was enjoying the evening.

And then all of a sudden, ice raided the whole restaurant.

Everyone was armed, screaming, Don't move.

Barrera who prides himself of being a son of Salvadorian immigrants, says in the 36 years that the first papoose, a local location, was open, they have never had issues except when a rent hike made the proposed location in Union City financially impossible to stay open.

That location closed on December 28, 20, 24 weeks before the Tik Tok video was posted.

He also points out that at no point is there any video of ICE agents entering or exiting the business.

Still, since then, more videos like this have surfaced.

You know, I need people to be more aware of what's actually happening, you know, before they believe, like Tik Tok Instagram, being involved in a situation like this.

I see like it has a very dark side.

Since the video has gone viral.

He hasn't just lost customers.

He says he's also lost hundreds of thousands of dollars.

I've had to like also cut my personnel, too, you know.

That's why I'm also here more, too, because it's like these my staff has been here for so many years, like they've been here even when my grandparents were here.

So it sucks to see because they've never they've never experienced something like this either.

So it's obviously sad and upsetting that, you know, I have to cut their hours and and days to I don't want to do that.

It's so easy to share and reshare information that may be dated or might not be, you know, accurate.

Viri Martinez is the manager of member empowerment at the New Jersey Alliance for Immigrant Justice.

Martinez, who is aware of the false video affecting Pereira's business, says with immigrant communities already fearful of ice, spreading misinformation can do even more harm, which is why she stresses that community members make sure to check the boxes with the Salud acronym before spreading what could turn out to be false information.

Though it stands for size.

How many agents is it?

5 to 6 agents.

Let's say a four action.

You know, they're harassing people on the street location.

You know, there are on you know, let's say they're in Newark at this exact street, the uniform.

What are they wearing?

You know, the time and date, the exact time, the exact you know, the exact date that this is happening, and then the equipment that they're holding that is really going to outline what, you know, the information that we need as advocates so that we can go into rapid response.

Barrera says while he was unable to reach the user who posted the original video, he was able to have Tik Tok remove it.

He now is planning to hold an informational session at his restaurant for community members and other business owners to educate them on their rights and the importance of not spreading misinformation.

For NJ Spotlight News I'm Raven Santana.