Will DC Restaurants Survive This Round Of ICE Enforcement?

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Today on CityCas DC, more than almost any local industry dining is reliant on a workforce

that does not always have the legal status to work here, which means that the recent hints

of a new round of federal enforcement could have a big impact, not just on the affected

employees, but also on the businesses themselves and on the universe of people who enjoy our

city's dining scene.

Tim Carman of The Washington Post has been following the news.

He's here to explain what it means for the workforce, for the restaurants, and for you.

Today is Monday, March 16th.

I'm Michael Schaefer.

Here's what DC is talking about.

Tim Carman, welcome back.

Thanks for having me.

So you recently wrote about restaurants losing employees thanks to DHS and ICE stepping

up enforcement and raids and alerts.

You start off with the story about one particular restaurant downtown.

Can you just paint the picture of what they went through?

Yeah, of course.

So the idea here is that, you know, back last spring, DHS sent agents to various restaurants

around DC.

They apparently targeted about 190.

And what they were doing was providing a notice of inspection letter.

And that requires the restaurants to provide the list of documents and information sheets

that they have on all employees.

And then once DHS gets those documents, it will compare it against information and

its own database to verify that these workers are authorized to work in the United States.

So that apparently took nine months to do.

And so what they started getting were these letters, these enforcement letters from DHS,

specifically from the Homeland Security.

And these letters list, literally list the names of the employees who they cannot verify

as authorized to work.

And so the first restaurant that I wrote about, you know, a fairly popular downtown restaurant

and just to be clear, they don't want to be named.

They don't want to be named.

They don't want to put a further target on their back.

But they were, they had 32 of 46 employees mentioned as not being apparently authorized.

And so the restaurant has, you know, some options, a couple of options.

They can protest each of these and provide new documentation that might prove their authorization

or they could fire them.

And in the case of this restaurant, the owner either terminated or the employees left 29

of the 32.

So that just decimated the restaurant.

You know, we're talking servers, bartenders, line cooks, prep cooks.

Very part of the operations, they've had to find immediate replacements or try to figure

out what else they could do.

And so using this restaurant as a case study, what was the effect?

So you lose all these employees.

What does the effect?

Obviously, you have to scramble to hire new ones.

What does that do to the bottom line?

So in this particular example, I think it's a very well considered, you know, well-reviewed

restaurant and the owner is respected, I think, among workers in DC.

And so he said that some of his former workers who either got fired or left recommended

new workers to him.

And so he was fairly quickly able to replace 17 of the 29.

I think that helped him keep the restaurant open without too much, you know, too many

factors affecting the experience that you'd have in the dining room, whether it's a short

menu or fewer servers, anything that can cause people to leave a bad, a yellow review.

But he was still short and it required him and his partner to step up.

Like his partner literally had to go work downstairs in the prep kitchen, you know, peeling

potatoes, chopping vegetables, getting ready for the day.

And this is not what owners typically do.

The idea is that this sort of thing, which was first previewed what nine months ago, is

expected to be in the uptick now.

Yeah.

So, you know, trying to get owners to talk about this right now and this, this particular

period, it's very tough.

They obviously don't want to have further attention put on them by, you know, immigration

officials.

So when I first heard of these enforcement letters coming out in late February, I started

immediately calling various restaurants and, you know, some said they didn't get letters.

I would say most of the people I called said they had not received letters, but I did

confirm either through the owners or their attorneys that seven restaurants, at least

seven, had received letters.

And that had translated into 131 workers either leaving the job or being terminated.

And what a couple of immigration attorneys told me is that it's very, very likely that

all 190 restaurants that received inspection notices back in the spring will receive a

letter eventually that this was just the tip of the iceberg.

So 130 workers right now, but this could end up having a much larger impact on the

restaurant labor force, which is already really tight.

I mean, COVID hurt the labor force in restaurants.

Significally, people didn't want to work in restaurants.

Felt very unsafe and were also just kind of over the sort of work hours and the hard

work of dealing with the public.

And they've never quite recovered from that.

And this puts an even larger pressure, I think, on the industry.

And it'll be interesting to see if this tactic that DC seems to be the first city to

experience will, you know, roll out into other cities.

I think the speculation is high that it will.

So have you spoken to any of the folks who quit or resigned or were terminated?

So I have not.

I mean, they're all very shy about talking to the press.

Even if we get at them anonymity, it's very difficult.

There is one that I've been trying really hard to get a hold of because he was detained

and he was put in a unit up in Baltimore where I understand he barely was fed for three days.

What about the rest of our tours of you spoken with any of them?

I have.

They're very concerned.

They're concerned that they won't find replacements.

They're concerned that it could happen to them in the near future.

Basically, they're concerned about their livelihood.

This could have like a devastating effect on their ability to operate a restaurant as they conceived it.

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So I guess the question would be like they are employers in the United States.

And under our law, you're supposed to only hire workers who have permission to work here.

And the government has the power to investigate this.

So when you leaving aside the kind of thuggish Trump administration behavior

of like showing up in tactical gear to deliver these notices that you could have emailed,

isn't this like what the law is supposed to say?

Like aren't weren't these restaurateurs supposed to be hiring people who have permission to work?

Yeah, of course.

It, you know, some immigration attorneys will tell you that, you know,

it's really not right or fair that we have thrown worker authorization on to employers.

But this is the state of the industry.

They have to gather this paperwork.

And the paperwork can include driver's license, birth certificates, passport,

a green card, work visa, any number of documents that prove both that, you know,

their identity and that they're authorized to work in this country.

Now, the responsibility of the employer is to gather these documents and to give them a look at.

And just kind of eyeball whether or not they look legit,

they are not required to check it against any government database.

So there, as you can imagine, you know, the, the undocumented worker community is very savvy.

And there is a cottage, cottage industry for producing false documents.

So a lot of these documents that restaurant owners are looking at look legit.

And unless they are enrolled in a program like e-verify,

they won't be able to tell if they're fake or legitimate documents.

I guess what I'm saying is like, when I read what you wrote and listen to what you say,

my first assumption is that the loss of 130 workers with untold numbers to follow

is yet another kick in the teeth to a restaurant industry that has been really struggling.

And I, as a Washingtonian who likes to go out to eat and who wants to city

to have a vibrant, diverse, creative restaurant scene,

should feel like it's a bad thing when our restaurant industry gets kicked in the teeth.

But that also raises a sort of uncomfortable question that my pleasure as a diner

is dependent on illegality and on the mass employment,

employing of people who are outside the law and not authorized to work.

Yeah, without a doubt.

I mean, some people really upset by the idea that restaurants use undocumented workers

to provide a sort of level of luxury that, you know, wealthier people enjoy.

Typically, wealthier people tend to enjoy.

But like an economist would say, well, isn't the answer to just,

if they're having a hard time finding workers to just pay more?

And then pass that cost on to the bougie swells who are dining.

Right.

I mean, that's one option, right?

You know, the model of the restaurant industry has often relied on undocumented labor.

I think I think that's a safe thing to say.

It's often been perceived as a pathway towards citizenship.

You enter the country.

How do you do when you find a job?

You work it for many years and you, you find a pathway towards citizenship.

There's some great stories out in the restaurant world of undocumented workers

who've, you know, really worked very hard and have ended up becoming owners themselves.

So I think it's like one path that undocumented workers has seen towards realizing this idea,

the American dream.

And so, yeah, historically, that has been the pattern of restaurants.

Could they break it by raising prices to the point that

others might be interested in that kind of labor?

That is a question that a lot of people will say, no, like it won't,

you cannot find enough people to do the hard, sweaty, laborious work of being a line cook in a kitchen.

Critics will often say, well, these line cooks, these bar backs, these bus boys,

they are, you know, just working at terrible wages and being exploited.

And on some level that could be true, but at another level, I think if you talk to these workers,

they will tell you that they're being paid, you know, the minimum wage in DC is 1750 per hour.

It's, it's not a bad wage.

It's not perhaps a level wage, but it's not a bad wage.

And others are being paid much more than that.

I think line cooks these days given the labor shortage are, you know, being paid in the mid 20s,

low to mid 20s.

And you're starting to look at a respectable salary.

So it's, it's hard to exactly label this as exploitation.

I think the workers would tell you that they're choosing these jobs.

They're keeping these jobs.

They support their families.

And they want these jobs.

But what, what it is is sort of outside the four corners of the law, apparently.

And that is, as, as we know, as journalists, you know, people who have some power

and some ability to not face consequence will exploit that power.

But on the matter of like whether we will continue to live in a city that has a vibrant, creative,

interesting, fun, and affordable to regular people dining scene,

you know, who's going to replace the workers who have gone away and are going to go away?

It's a real open question right now.

If it gets worse, you know, these workers are going to flee to safer jurisdictions.

But what I think I hear you saying is that if Washington is the first,

it won't be the last and other jurisdictions may not be safer for long.

I think that's the general idea.

You know, I heard a comment that didn't make it into the story from one of the immigration attorneys

that the motivation here from the government may be twofold,

maybe trying to get rid of illegal workers in the restaurant industry,

but also to get these restaurants to climb on board with a DHS program called E-Verify,

which is one way that restaurants can, you know, buy and large figure out

if their workforce is authorized.

It's not a perfect system. People will tell you it has flaws.

You hear an amazing example in your piece of its flows.

Right. Right. Like the partner of the main restaurant I featured in the story,

he was not authorized or voted E-Verify even though he had been naturalized years earlier.

And, you know, I've heard similar stories from other people.

So it's not a perfect system, but it's significantly better than, you know,

just eyeballing documents to see if they're legitimate.

But, you know, I think the other point you're bringing up here is like,

is this going to really hurt the DC restaurant industry?

Is it going to, you know, cause people to give pause on whether or not

they should continue operating in DC or even open a restaurant in DC?

And I think that is a real legitimate question.

I have talked to numerous restaurant owners who are either fed up with dealing with DC

and all its, you know, issues, whether it's like, you know, increased labor costs,

a national guard on the street, tariffs, what have you? They're tired of it.

And they want to go somewhere else or they just won't open up here because too costly.

What's the downside for restaurants of signing up for E-Verify?

Well, the main downside is that it doesn't necessarily mean that their workers are safe,

that they have hired authorized workers. And, you know, I think right now,

they're all very worried about having a labor force that could be cut in half or more

in, you know, just a matter of days if they receive enforcement letter.

So, they could end up paying some money for E-Verify and still getting workers flagged by the government.

That's sort of a loose, loose situation, costing them more money and not necessarily protecting other workers.

So, I know you talk to people like the restaurant associations, sort of attorneys who represent the industry writ large.

What are their expectations for what the next shoes are that are going to drop or the next jackboots?

They're worried. You know, they're trying to attack it from a policy point of view.

I know having conversations with people in the federal government to try to maybe figure out a carve out for workers who have been here many years,

a pathway towards citizenship, something that would not target the kind of people that I think even most Trump voters didn't think would be targeted.

Like, I think a lot of people who voted for Trump, you know, 2024 thought he would go after the most violent criminals.

And, you know, the workers that he's targeting the restaurant industry are not those.

And so, yeah, I think there's a real concern here that we'll see like fewer workers, fewer restaurants, fewer openings.

Then we had before.

And your contention is even if they raised prices to like $100 an hour for a bus boy, they would not be able to find those.

Well, maybe $100 an hour, I'd quit my job and go be a bus boy.

Well, right, but you also wouldn't be going out to dinner anymore.

Sure.

But, you know, I think the idea is, is twofold.

If you paid like a living wage for a lot of these jobs, the price of dinner is going to be so high that you're going to lose a large percentage for your customers.

There's already considerable angst among Washingtonians about how much a dinner for two costs.

You know, it's a lot of money.

And, you know, we're even looking at wages that are still being subsidized by the tip credit, which is a whole other issue.

But so, you know, if suddenly the full price of a meal reflected, you know, labor costs that were more compatible with the living wage, you're talking a very expensive dinner.

And there is a, there is a, there is a point which consumers just, you know, stop going.

And whatever that pain threshold is, restaurant tours are very acutely aware of what it is.

And so, that's one issue.

Like, you can only raise a price of a meal to certain point without causing serious damage to your bottom line.

The second part is, like, there is, there doesn't seem to be a labor force just willing to step into these roles.

The type of worker required to do restaurant, you know, back of the housework, it's a really disciplined, serious worker.

And you can't have some college, you know, flunky looking to gain, you know, a few hours doing the kind of labor in the back of the house.

This is, this is skilled labor.

And the workers that are there have been doing it for years.

And they are completely prized by the restaurant owners.

Like, it's not easy to find that skill set at, at almost any price point.

And you're not going to get it by, you know, hiring some recent graduates from a culinary school.

It's like, line cooks, you know, they are a unique employer, a unique worker in the back of the house.

Their skill set is extremely rare.

And they're the type that every restaurant needs.

And without looking to maybe have every one of them wanting to be the sous chef for the chef de cuisine or the expediter.

You just need these kind of day to day workers who put together every meal.

And they're, they're hard to find.

And I think one of the things that comes out in your reporting and in our conversations is, is this that if you listen to sort of,

MAGA diehards or, you know, doctrinaire economists.

Restaurants are full of people who are being paid 72 cents an hour because they have no choice,

because otherwise, someone will blow the whistle on them.

But what you're painting is a picture of a highly prized workforce where if nothing else,

you could take your skills from one restaurant to another because you are much sought after.

You know, there, there have been rest, you know, line cooks who for a dollar more per hour will, will leave a job they've held for years.

So they are prized positions.

Now, are there examples of workers being treated very poorly and paid very poorly because of the owners hold their immigration status over their head?

I'm sure.

I'm absolutely sure there are.

Are most of them the sort of, like, mid to high tier restaurant that you see in DC?

I don't think so.

These, like, if you have that reputation in this town, you're not going to keep workers.

Tim, thank you so much for being here.

Yeah, of course.

Yeah. Thanks for having me, Michael.

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