In 20 years of practicing immigration law, award-winning attorney Miriam Fisher has never before fielded as many inquiries from small business owners—U.S. citizens in particular—asking how they can protect themselves and their employees from being targeted by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). “It doesn’t matter what the business owner thinks about other aspects of policy or what their partisan affiliation is. Now, business owners are presented with a direct risk to their business with immigration enforcement,” she says.
Fisher is the founder of Las Abogadas RVA—an international women-led team of multilingual immigration attorneys based in Virginia. She notes that while every presidential administration has set priorities for enforcement—with many deportations under the Obama and Biden administrations—”they were targeted to specific priorities, and it was people with criminal convictions, where we saw a lot of the deportations coming from jails, from prisons,” she says. “It was more orderly.”
“We’ve all seen the cell phone videos of ICE busting into restaurants or tackling landscaping crews. That’s not something historically that business owners have really had to worry about,” Fisher adds.
Recently, ICE enforcement under the Trump administration revved up significantly, with “Operation Metro Surge” beginning in early December that sent more than 3,000 agents to the Minneapolis-St. Paul metro area. Federal agents killed two civilian observers during the operation: Renée Good and Alex Pretti, who were both U.S. citizens. Nationwide protests and general strikes followed, and on January 23, more than 800 Minnesota restaurants and businesses publicly announced they would close in solidarity with the protest.
While impacts of these immigration sweeps are felt by people working in all industries, the restaurant and hospitality sectors in particular are experiencing a significant hit. Immigrant workers represent 36 percent of restaurant owners and over 20 percent of the sector’s workforce, according to the National Restaurant Association.
The Minnesota Star Tribune reports that businesses along the immigrant corridors of the Twin Cities have lost at least half their sales since the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement accelerated, and in the past few weeks, many have closed until further notice. Restaurants across the state have made drastic changes to protect themselves and their communities, from new hours to key operational procedures, according to Mpls.St.Paul Magazine.
Mary Sue Milliken, a James Beard and Julia Child Award-winning chef and the co-owner of Mundo Hospitality Group (Border Grill, SOCALO, Alice B., BBQ Mexicana, and Pacha Mamas), tells FSR the impacts of recent immigration enforcement have been “devastating.” She has experienced a direct impact on her restaurants with employee no call/no shows due to detentions, as well as general fear and anxiety around enforcement negatively impacting her staff. In response, her restaurant leadership team has provided legal resources and information for employees, developed internal protocols for ICE raids, and increased their focus on staff mental health.
The worst advice that Fisher has heard recently is people saying “put your head down and wait it out.” While that approach may have worked in the past, those days are over, she notes. “I’ve been really upset hearing people across different industries advise people to just wait it out and stay in the shadows. I think that’s terrible advice, and it’s not safe,” Fisher says. “Being proactive and being empowered to be prepared to advocate for yourself and to navigate those situations is very, very important.”
With that in mind, here are some tangible tips for what you can do to take action now:
ICE Preparedness Checklist for Restaurant Operators
1. Support Employees’ Legal Status
- Encourage staff to get a legal screening with a qualified immigration attorney—don’t assume “there’s nothing they can do.”
- Offer referrals to trusted local immigration lawyers or nonprofits.
- If feasible, help cover consultation or filing fees for key staff, even if the case isn’t employer‑sponsored
- Avoid interrogating workers about the details of their status; focus on connecting them to counsel, not collecting sensitive information yourself.
2. Help Employees Prepare a “Worst-Case” Plan
Encourage staff to:
- Keep critical documents accessible:
- Passport or national ID
- Copies of any immigration documents or receipts for pending cases
- Carry or store key contact information:
- Immigration attorney
- Trusted family member or friend
- Emergency contact for children
- If applicable, set up:
- Power of attorney for property, vehicles, or business interests
- A simple plan for childcare or custody if they’re detained
- Encourage workers, if possible, to set aside funds for bond and legal fees.
You can host or sponsor a “know your rights” session where an attorney explains these steps in person.
3. Clarify Public vs. Private Areas in Your Restaurant
To preserve legal protections if ICE or Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) shows up, Fisher recommends clearly marking spaces:
- Public areas (no warrant needed to enter):
- Dining room, bar, lobby—anywhere a random person can walk in during business hours.
- Private areas (require a judicial warrant to enter):
- Kitchen
- Back office
- Storage rooms
- Staff areas and break rooms
Action steps:
- Post clear signage such as:
- “Employees Only”
- “Private Office – Not Open to the Public”
- Train managers and supervisors to understand the difference and not to invite officers into private spaces without legal review.
4. Prepare for Audits and Document Requests
If Homeland Security wants to audit your records, you are entitled to notice and time:
- For an I-9 audit, the minimum notice is 3 business days. Use that window to:
- Contact your immigration counsel and/or CPA.
- Review your I‑9s, payroll records, and HR files for completeness and organization.
- Make sure designated managers know:
- Who is authorized to speak with agents.
- Who to call (attorney, owner, corporate) before handing over records.
5. Train Leadership on What ICE Can and Cannot Do
Fisher notes that ICE generally acts under civil, not criminal, authority, and typically does not have judicial warrants:
- Basic principles for managers:
- ICE/HSI may approach anyone in public spaces.
- They cannot legally enter private areas (back of house, office) without a judicial warrant signed by a judge, not just an ICE form.
- Staff are not required to consent to a search of private areas without that warrant.
- Develop a simple internal script, for example:
- “Let me get the owner/manager.”
- “We respect the law. Our policy is to contact our attorney before providing records or access to non-public areas.”
6. Offer “Know Your Rights” and Information Sessions
- Invite an immigration attorney or nonprofit to:
- Conduct “know your rights” trainings for staff
- Run brief on-site mini-clinics during lunch or breaks, where workers can privately ask questions.
- Make clear that attendance is voluntary, and that the goal is to equip employees, not collect information.
7. Plan Your Communications & Reputation Strategy
Fisher points out that reputational risk—from misidentifications, protests, and viral videos—is real:
- Decide in advance:
- Whether and how you’ll publicly state your support for immigrant staff and guests (for example, signage, social media).
- Who is authorized to speak to media or post publicly if an incident occurs.
- Consider drafting:
- A basic holding statement expressing concern for staff and community, commitment to legal compliance, and respect for due process.
- Balance:
- Protecting your people
- Avoiding unnecessary escalation or misinformation
8. Engage Beyond Your Four Walls
Fisher believes industry voices are key to changing policy:
- Join or work with:
- Restaurant and hospitality associations
- Local business coalitions or immigrant advocacy networks
- Share with elected officials:
- How enforcement is affecting your workforce, operations, and revenue.
- Encourage peers to speak from an economic and community impact lens, not only a political one.
Make Your Voice Heard
Fisher also acknowledges “It is very scary in this time when the government isn’t following the law and when ICE agents aren’t following policy, it feels like a moving target,” she says. “As an attorney, I can tell somebody what their legal rights are, but if law enforcement doesn’t respect their legal rights, that might not be as helpful as I might hope. But I think, as with many things, having a plan and having some action steps is better than none.”
At the same time, Fisher says she’s starting to see the tide turn on immigration enforcement as its real-world fallout hits businesses across the political spectrum. Many of her clients once supported tough enforcement—even those with large immigrant workforces—but now describe disruptive raids, the arrest of employees with legal work permits, and some of their longtime, reliable workers suddenly being picked up. Those experiences, she argues, are forcing people to confront how complex immigration status really is, how many households are “mixed status,” and how deeply entire industries depend on immigrant workers and customers.
She sees signs of the administration backtracking, such as the recent expansion of the H2-B visa program. “And the reason that’s happening is because the politicians are hearing from industry leaders saying, ‘you’re hurting our business; you’re making businesses close down. You’re causing us to lose revenue,’” Fisher notes.
She believes restaurant and hospitality leaders are especially well positioned to make their voices heard by government officials, and encourages joining local and national restaurant owner/operator coalitions and groups to create more reach.
Last week, for example, The James Beard Foundation urged restaurant leaders to contact their members of Congress ahead of the January 30 budget vote to “urge strong guardrails on immigration enforcement that protect workers, restaurants, and communities.”
Restaurant leaders have an opportunity, Fisher says, to share their perspectives with elected officials “and with industry heads and say, ‘on the ground, the immigration enforcement is hurting our business in these ways.’ And if enough of that message gets up to the top, I think it could be really effective.”
“I hope that we do see a rollback in enforcement, and also just to move towards a more humane and rational and comprehensive approach to immigration,” she continues. “Because, very few people have said that immigration laws shouldn’t be enforced, or that criminals shouldn’t be deported … But what there is a big call for, and increasingly, more and more are saying, ‘we can’t have our communities torn apart. We can’t have our workforces torn apart, we can’t have our businesses shuttered by this enforcement.’”
Below are some additional informational flyers for restaurant business owners and employees, provided by Fisher’s law firm, Las Abogadas RVA:
Guide to Employment-Based Immigrant Visas:
Know Your Rights for Employers—When ICE Comes to the Workplace:
Know Your Rights for Employees: ICE Encounters (in Spanish):
