CNN
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If U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement visits a Chicago restaurant in the next few days, Sam Toia wants to know.
With the incoming Trump administration planning to launch an immigration crackdown on big cities, possibly including Chicago, Toia, CEO of the Illinois Restaurant Association, has fielded calls from concerned members and is preparing to come to their aid.
“Make sure all of your people who are working — and I’m sure they do — have the paperwork in place and if ICE inspectors come in, you comply with it,” Toia said as he tells members about the eligibility of employment in I-9. verification forms. “Please obey the law, just as you would if a health inspector came in.”
At the same time, he is touching base with area immigration lawyers and attorneys to enable the association to quickly provide referrals if any restaurants or their employees need help.
“If they come to your restaurant, call me,” Toia said, noting that foreign-born workers are the “backbone” of the Windy City’s hospitality industry. “We have immigration attorneys who are members of the association, so we will put employers and employees in touch with the right people.”
Like Toia, business groups and employers across the U.S. are bracing for the impending immigration crackdowns that were a centerpiece of President-elect Donald Trump’s 2024 election campaign.
Since Trump’s victory in November, the American Business Immigration Coalition has held dozens of in-person and virtual training sessions with more than a thousand employers to prepare for the purges. For example, earlier this month, more than 150 agricultural producers, including meat processors and dairy farmers, joined an online webinar.
The goal is to help companies — especially smaller ones that may not have lawyers and consultants on hand — minimize disruptions to their workforce and day-to-day operations, said Rebecca Shi, executive director of the coalition, which has more than 1700 members.
“It’s important for employers to know they have rights, but they also need to comply with the law,” she said.
If ICE agents arrive, businesses must obtain a warrant signed by a judge to enter the premises. Employers have 72 hours to produce the required documentation “so they don’t have to fight,” Shi said. They can then contact attorneys to make sure they have all the right documents, including the I-9 forms and information they need.
Coalition members are also concerned that some of their foreign-born staff may not show up for work in an effort to avoid any contact with ICE. Already, immigrant-patronized businesses are seeing sales decline as some residents try to stay home more, Shi said.
“Even workers with legal status don’t want to hide,” she said. “Eviction is quite an open instrument.”
Although Chicago restaurateur Sam Sanchez doesn’t think ICE agents will randomly raid restaurants, he is preparing. He had his human resources staff call the company’s payroll firm and make sure it had the employees’ I-9 forms on hand. And he advises that employees carry their work permits, visas and any other documents with them.
Sanchez, owner of Third Coast Hospitality who is a member of the coalition and on the board of the National Restaurant Association, believes future sweeps will target immigrants with criminal records for deportation, a move he supports. There’s no way to know if any of its workers might have a criminal record and be on ICE’s list, he noted.
But Sanchez is also advocating that Trump and Congress make it easier for long-term undocumented immigrants who have worked and paid taxes in the U.S. for years to get work authorization. He is among a group of Latino business leaders who are forming a coalition, called the Comité de 100, to seek legal avenues for Dreamers, whose parents brought them to America as children, and for legal work permits for essential workers, as well as for border security.
“Many of my employees voted for Trump,” said Sanchez, who also cast his ballot for the president. “People have a hard time believing this and I don’t know why. They felt abandoned by the Biden administration.”
