National Immigration and Customs Security Research in the United States visited more than 100 companies in the Washington area, DC, this week in what the agency said it was part of a broad effort to carry out “the application of the workplace throughout the country to ensure that companies follow the immigration and employment laws of the United States”, according to a statement sent to ABC News on Wednesday.
“No arrests were made as part of these work site application operations,” the statement said.
Multiple sources told ABC News that federal law officials had visited dozens of restaurants, places and transport bars in several neighborhoods in DC, including U Street, 14th Street, Chinatown, Dupont Circle and Mount Vernon Triangle. Visits covered a wide range of establishments, from fast points to restaurants and luxury cocktails, reflecting the amplitude of the operation.
In many restaurants, agents distributed information and pamphlets that requested to see the I-9 forms to verify the identities and employment authorizations for all employees dating from a year ago, sources said, and added that some restaurants were told that federal officials would return in three days.
After Tuesday visits, some restaurants chose to close preventively.
“I have heard those reports, I have been receiving them all morning. I am disturbed by them,” said Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser, journalists on Tuesday. “It seems that ICE is in restaurants or even in neighborhoods, and it does not seem that they are pointing to criminals. He is interrupting.”
He also emphasized that the Metropolitan Police Department was not involved.
A seal of the National Security Department on a podium at the Headquarters of Immigration and Customs Control (ICE), March 13, 2024.
Luke Barr/ABC News
A coalition of activists had warned the delivery drivers and restaurants of the planned application the day before they began.
George Escobar, head of house programs and services, an organization aimed at improving the quality of life of the working class, told ABC News on Tuesday that the organization regularly receives advice on planned raids, but that this was different.
“This, to be honest, alarmed us a little because it was really specific,” said Escobar.
The organization has executed a 24 -hour hot end line since the first Trump administration.
“We have experience. We do not alarm, as, you know, any ancient threat because, you know, they are frequent, right? And they come in different types of forms,” he said.
However, in this case, he was noticed home that ICE would be using President Donald Trump’s Executive Order aimed at Washington’s “beautification” To justify the raids, said Escobar.
“We received a notice about a specific type of operation on how they were going to carry out: what perhaps entered some of these small businesses were going to be, the fact that the food companies and possibly delivery workers were specifically looking for,” he explained.
“If ICE wants to snatch all immigrants who work in food service and delivery, the entire industry will collapse,” said Amy Fischer, a central organizer with a mutual aid network of migrant solidarity, which supports migrants who arrive in the capital, in a statement.
The Metropolitan of the Washington Restaurants Association, which represents the more than 60,000 restaurant workers in the area, said in a statement shared with ABC News that is “deeply worried” for the reports of ice raids and drop -ins in Washington, DC.
Ramw said that he urges “policy formulators at the local and federal level to consider the impact of the real world on local companies and communities.”
“Immigrants constitute a significant portion of our workforce at all levels. From dishwasher to executive chefs and restaurant owners, immigrants contribute irreplaceable to our most famous restaurants and dear neighboring establishments,” he added. “Immigrant workforce has been essential to maintain and cultivate our local restaurant industry and has been an important taxpayer to our local economy.
“At a time when our economy is already fragile, losing even a staff member in a single establishment has a deep impact on the operations of a restaurant and its ability to serve customers,” Ramw added. “When interrupting restaurant staff throughout the industry, it can create a harmful dominant effect that feels immediately throughout the local economy.”
