WASHINGTON – Some D.C. residents are on edge following reports of Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids at restaurants in popular neighborhoods.
What we know:
ICE agents went into Chef Geoff’s Restaurant Tuesday morning and asked to see the staff’s I-9 forms, sending workers into a panic.
“It’s very high anxiety, anxiety-inducing. I think it’s really terrible right now that ICE is taking people and sending them away to El Salvador and these other countries to what are basically concentration camps,” one D.C. resident, Isa, told FOX 5.
D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser says she was upset to hear about the reports.
“I have heard those reports. I’ve been getting them all morning. I am disturbed by them. It appears as though ICE is at restaurants, or even at neighborhoods, and it doesn’t look like they’re targeting criminals, and it does look like they’re disrupting,” Bowser said.
Nearly a dozen law enforcement and immigration officials wearing DHS uniforms went into Chef Geoff’s Restaurant on New Mexico Avenue, Northwest, around 10:30 a.m. on Tuesday.
No one was taken into custody and the agents were there for about an hour and a half.
The mayor says she wants it to be clear that D.C. police are not involved in these raids in any way.
Dig deeper:
We’ve also heard of similar enforcement happening at restaurants in Dupont Circle and Columbia Heights.
One of them was Millie’s off Massachusetts Avenue. They told FOX 5 that seven agents came right when they opened Tuesday morning, asking to see I-9 forms.
They had a warrant signed by an ICE agent – not by a judge. No one was taken into custody there either.
Why you should care:
I-9 forms are the employment verification forms used to make sure employees are legally allowed to work in the United States. Rumors about ICE raids in D.C. started over the weekend.
Immigrant support organizations say they want people to have a plan in place.
The group migrant Solidarity Mutual Aid shared on their social media photos and videos of agents sent to them by community members, along with the rights that they want people to remember: the most important one is the right to remain silent.
Advocacy groups also say call an attorney if you can and don’t sign any documents.
What they’re saying:
“Unfortunately, fear is the goal as these happen whether in D.C. or across the country. But what we’re also seeing is a lot of solidarity within the D.C. community,” said Claudia Tristan, a volunteer with Migrant Solidarity Mutual.
“There was no one detained or arrested that I’ve heard of but regardless of that fact, disrupting food service during lunch hours while restaurants are open is alarming, and we are concerned about the fear-mongering tactics we believe happened today,” says Shawn Townsend, President of the Restaurant Association of Metropolitan Washington,
“There is a sense of fear. It’s alarming, it’s concerning, immigrants make up a large amount of workers in our restaurants in the district. I think there could have been a better way to get the information that these ICE agents, from what I’m told, were looking for.”
Big picture view:
ICE’s visit to Chef Geoff’s follows rumors around social media warning that ICE was planning major raids in the D.C. area.
In March, immigration enforcement activity made waves in northern Virginia. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem was in Arlington at the beginning of March calling ICE agents “rockstars,” claiming they are working to take criminals off the streets. While Noem insists that ICE is only targeting the “worst of the worst” — MS-13 gang members, 18th Street gang members — many advocates argue this is a false pretense, and that innocent people are being caught up in the raids.
What’s next:
FOX 5 is still waiting to hear back from ICE and DHS officials if anyone was detained.
This is a developing story. Stay with FOX 5 for updates.
