Federal agents arrested 189 people and served 187 “notices of inspection” to business across DC last week in the Trump administration’s most high-profile immigration crackdown yet in the nation’s capital.
Russell Hott, ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations Washington, D.C. Field Office Director, said in a press release that authorities targeted “the most dangerous alien offenders in some of the most crime-infested neighborhoods in the city of Washington.” ICE singled out four individuals that it alleged had violent criminal histories.
The arrests coincided with federal agents visiting DC businesses, including many restaurants, seeking I-9 forms verifying employment eligibility. According to ICE, the arrests were unrelated to these I-9 checks, which spanned the city from Millie’s in Spring Valley to Lauriol Plaza in Adams Morgan to Cynthia’s on H Street Northeast. ICE tells Washingtonian that the businesses were not targeted at random, but they would not disclose why they were targeted.
The operation, which ICE says lasted from May 6 to 9, has left the DC restaurant industry on edge.
“If you want to affect the soul of a city, it’s a good place to start,” says Cynthia’s owner Phil Coppage of restaurants specifically being targeted. “The places where people go and commune and enjoy themselves and blow off some steam—it’s where I’d start if I wanted to really take a city down a peg or two.”
One DC chef, who asked to remain anonymous for fear of retaliation, says a handful of employees called out of work last week, even though ICE agents did not visit the restaurant group that he works for. “They were afraid about the situation. They thought if they come outside, [agents] are going to catch them on the road,” he says. One mom told him she didn’t want to leave her kids alone if someone knocked on her door, and she feared being separated from them if something happened to her while she was out.
The absence of those workers put a strain on the restaurant, with others having to pull longer shifts and take on additional duties to keep service flowing. The chef says he heard of at least one other restaurants that nearly had to close. The chef, a Mexican immigrant, says he’s worked at restaurants in the past where as much as 80 percent of the kitchen staff was undocumented.
The chef says the workers have returned to work this week as the restaurant group has solidified an action plan in the event ICE agents do show up. Meanwhile, some people he knows are also making a “plan B” in their personal lives—figuring out who will take care of their kids if they’re detained and taking money out of their bank accounts and sending it to their home countries.
The fear is not limited to those who are undocumented, says the chef. People who have a legal work permit (like himself) or refugee visas are nervous that their statuses could be revoked under the Trump administration. The chef says he was planning to buy a house this year but will now hold off.
“I don’t want to invest money right now. We don’t know what’s going on,” he says. “That’s the bigger picture the government doesn’t see.”
Jessica Sidman covers the people and trends behind D.C.’s food and drink scene. Before joining Washingtonian in July 2016, she was Food Editor and Young & Hungry columnist at Washington City Paper. She is a Colorado native and University of Pennsylvania grad.
