‘The deployments create fear’: Immigration crackdown hurting restaurant staffing, reservations
Now in its second month, the Operation Midway Blitz immigration crackdown is causing staffing shortages and other problems at Chicago-area restaurants, industry insiders say.
In addition to employees not reporting for shifts to avoid arrest at workplaces, restaurants are booking fewer reservations and welcoming fewer walk-in customers, said Sam Toia, president and CEO of the Illinois Restaurant Association.
It’s not just the increased presence of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents that’s impacting restaurants, Toia said through a spokesperson. The U.S. Border Patrol’s recent activity in the Loop and the activation of National Guard troops from Illinois and Texas — ostensibly to protect federal agents — have many citizens and noncitizens on edge, too.
“The deployments create fear,” Toia said.
Business has slowed
One Northwest suburban restaurateur said foot traffic at his eatery, which is in a community with a sizable Hispanic population, has been down since federal agents made arrests in town as part of Operation Midway Blitz.
The difference has been especially noticeable on Sundays, he said. Normally the place is packed for hours, but recent shifts have been lackluster.
“We may fill up once, but not all the way,” the entrepreneur said, speaking on condition of anonymity because of fear of retaliation. “If it doesn’t start picking up soon, I don’t know what we’re going to do.”
The ICE activity also is affecting the restaurateur’s ability to keep the place properly staffed.
He has 28 employees, and as far as he knows all of them are U.S. citizens or immigrants living here legally. But one server — described by the owner as “a good kid who’s working and trying to go to school and be someone” — has missed a few shifts and has left work early a few times because she’s worried about being arrested.
And even though he’s a naturalized U.S. citizen, the restaurant owner fears being snatched up by ICE agents too. “I speak Spanish, I’m brown and I work at a low-paying job,” he said.
When asked to comment, the Department of Homeland Security released a lengthy, previously circulated statement in which Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin called allegations of racial profiling by Homeland Security agents “disgusting, reckless, and categorically FALSE.”
“What makes someone a target for immigration enforcement is if they are illegally in the U.S. — NOT their skin color, race, or ethnicity,” McLaughlin said.
McLaughlin went on to say her agents follow the Fourth Amendment’s requirement of reasonable suspicion to stop a person or vehicle.
“DHS enforces federal immigration law without fear, favor, or prejudice,” her statement reads.
And yet, U.S. Border Patrol Commander-at-Large Gregory Bovino last month said agents have made arrests based partly on how people look.
‘We encourage self-deportation’
A restaurateur elsewhere in the suburbs said one employee asked not to be assigned delivery duty because he’s afraid of getting stopped by ICE agents on the road.
“The ‘ICE word’ has come up in conversations,” the boss said. “They’re just concerned for their safety.”
A different employee quit and moved his family back to Mexico out of fear of arrest and deportation, the owner said. He wanted to return on his own terms.
That suits ICE just fine.
“If you are here illegally, we encourage self-deportation as a lawful option,” an agency spokesperson said in a statement to the Daily Herald. The spokesperson went on to suggest such immigrants use Homeland Security’s CBP Home app to tell the government they plan to leave the U.S.
ICE blamed journalists, activists, politicians and “keyboard warriors” for frightening American citizens. People living in the U.S. legally have nothing to worry about, the agency said.
On the other hand, employers who illegally hire undocumented immigrants “will be held accountable,” the spokesperson said.