Maine Restaurant Proprietor Bracing for ICE Raids Says Employees Is ‘Petrified’

This as-told-to essay relies on a dialog with Andrew M Volk, proprietor of Hunt & Alpine in Portland, Maine. It has been edited for size and readability.

In mid-January, I gathered my employees of 10 for a coaching session on what to do if ICE brokers confirmed up at my restaurant. It got here after days of listening to how involved the staff was following information of an elevated presence of ICE brokers in Portland.

This isn’t the form of info we, as restaurant staff, are accustomed to needing to know and relay. That is all so new. We’re coming into the unknown. And persons are afraid of the unknown.

My employees is scared. I am scared.

Individuals are staying house

I personally know folks, and have heard of many extra, staying house as a result of they’re afraid of being harassed or picked up by ICE. I am acquainted with individuals who have been taken, and I do not know the place they’re proper now.

My two kids have mentioned there are dozens and dozens of children of their college not exhibiting up as a result of their dad and mom are afraid for his or her security.

Everybody has been holding their breath to see what occurs subsequent.

We needed to study what ICE brokers can and may’t do

My restaurant is just two blocks from Metropolis Corridor in downtown Portland. Scattered round our streets, I do know there are ICE brokers — they’re there in plain sight — and it was comprehensible that my employees had been frightened about what to do in the event that they knocked on our door. I needed to assist my employees by giving them some info and route concerning what to do if one of many ICE brokers confirmed up.

We discovered brokers can enter the restaurant, however they are not entitled to enter personal or locked areas and not using a judicial warrant (we needed to outline what this warrant is). We do not have to reply questions from brokers, and we’re allowed to file their actions and phrases.

I need my employees to know that, though the presence of those brokers feels unpredictable, I am on this with them. We’re in it collectively. I need to have the ability to speak about what we are able to management and perceive as a lot info as attainable in preparation.

I take advantage of my voice as a white man

Though I am unable to repair this example, I can talk with the folks round me to make sure they know I’ll assist them and I’ll assist their communities.

I’ve owned my restaurant for 12 years. I am white. I am a heterosexual man. I do not current as somebody who ICE would possibly come after proper now, so I wish to use my voice in methods others are frightened to.

I have never needed to shut my restaurant’s doorways but, however I do know a number of restaurant house owners who’ve had to take action on sure days as a result of so lots of their employees had been too scared to point out as much as work. These are people who find themselves legally allowed to be in the US. These are folks with no felony historical past. And they’re petrified to go to work.

That is going to dampen our native companies if ICE brokers stay in Portland. It already has.

Editor’s word: Enterprise Insider reached out to ICE and CBP for remark.