Immigration and Customs and Excise are suspected of raids targeting businesses in Washington, DC, on Tuesday.
An activist coalition has warned the driver of shipping and restaurant about the planned enforcement one day before.
“I have heard the report, I have got it all morning. I was disturbed by them,” Mayor DC Muriel Bowser told reporters on Tuesday. “It seems that the ice is in a restaurant or even in the environment, and it seems they don’t target criminals. That is disturbing.”
He also stressed that the metropolitan police department was not involved.
The seal of the Department of Domestic Security in the podium at the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Headquarters (ICE), March 13, 2024.
Luke Barr/ABC News
George Escobar, Head of Programs and Services in Casa, an organization directed to improve the quality of life for American working class, told ABC News by telephone on Tuesday that the organization regularly received tips on planned raids.
“This one, to be honest, makes us a little worried, because it’s really specific,” Escobar told ABC News.
This organization has run a 24 -hour TIP hotline since the first Trump government.
“We are experienced. We are not worried, like, you know, old threats, because, you know, they often, right? And they come in all different types of forms,” he said.
However, in this case, Casa was warned that Ice would use President Donald Trump Executive orders aimed at the “beauty” of the US capital To justify the raid, said Escobar.
“We receive notifications about certain types of operations about how they will be carried out: what are possible to enter some of these small businesses, the fact that they see specifically in the food business and maybe shipping workers,” he explained.
ABC News reaches the Department of Domestic Security and ICE to provide comments but has not yet received a response.
“If ICE wants to seize every single immigrant that works in food and shipping services, then the entire industry will collapse,” Amy Fischer, core organizer with Mutual Aid solidarity migrant, which supports migrants that arrive in the capital, saying in a statement.
The Washington Metropolitan Restaurant Association representing more than 60,000 restaurant workers in the area-said in a statement distributed to ABC News that it was “very concerned” with an ice and drop-in raid in Washington, DC
Ramw said they urged “policy makers at the local and federal level to consider the real world impact on business and local communities.”
“Immigrants are a significant part of our workforce at all levels. From dishwasher to executive chefs to restaurant owners, immigrants are irreplaceable contributors to our most famous restaurants and loved environmental companies,” the statement said. “Immigrant workers are very important to maintain and grow our local restaurant industry and have become the main contributor to our local economy.”
“When our economy is fragile, even losing one staff member in one company has an in -depth impact on restaurant operations and its ability to serve customers, added Ramw.” Disturbing restaurant staff throughout the industry can create immediate destructive effects of ripples throughout the local economy. “