The co-owner of a downtown D.C. restaurant saw the letter from Homeland Security Investigations on Friday, Feb. 13, the eve of Valentine’s Day, one of the busiest dining holidays of the year. HSI, the primary investigative arm of the Department of Homeland Security, notified the restaurant that 32 of its 46 employees “appear unauthorized to work in the United States,” according to a copy of the letter reviewed by The Washington Post.
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On Tuesday, Feb. 24, 11 days after receiving the HSI letter, the co-owner tallied his losses: 29 employees — line cooks, prep cooks, bartenders, servers, managers — sent him messages to say they would no longer be working at his well-regarded restaurant. As he spoke on the phone, a manager in the background was arranging interviews in a mad dash for replacements in an industry that has long struggled with labor shortages.
Similar scenes were playing out at other restaurants in Washington, where at least six other establishments also received “notice of suspect documents” letters from HSI in mid-February. The Post confirmed that at least 131 employees at five restaurants have left their jobs or been terminated because of the letters, according to owners or their attorneys.
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In May, DHS agents requested I-9 paperwork from nearly 190 businesses in D.C., almost all of which were restaurants, immigration lawyers say. Some agents arrived at the restaurants in tactical gear and bearing guns to deliver inspection notices that immigration lawyers say can be sent via mail or email. It has taken HSI auditors nine months to review the provided I-9 documents — a basic form and supporting documents to prove a worker’s identity and employment eligibility — to determine whether a restaurant’s employees are authorized to work in the country. The first batch of letters went out on Feb. 12. They probably won’t be the last, said Becki Young, managing partner and immigration lawyer at Grossman Young & Hammond, a firm that represents three D.C. restaurants that received letters.
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In the past, these fines could be negotiated down with HSI lawyers to ensure the penalties don’t place a financial burden on restaurants, or put them out of business, said Mary Pivec, a lawyer at Grossman Young & Hammond who specializes in immigration compliance and worksite enforcement. “That seems less likely now,” Pivec said in an email to The Post.
But more than fines, restaurants could lose a sizable percentage of their staff. One D.C. restaurant lost 68 percent of its workers after receiving the HSI letter and another lost 63 percent, according to owners or attorneys of the targeted businesses. But some establishments have shed smaller fractions: One restaurant lost 15 percent of its workers; another lost 35 percent. These percentages don’t take into account the workers who left the four restaurants after the initial DHS visits in May.
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Like other proprietors in D.C., the co-owner is deciding whether to enroll in E-Verify, a DHS website that takes I-9 information submitted by companies and compares it against government records to confirm that an employee is authorized to work in the country. But he knows the website isn’t foolproof: It once listed his business partner as unauthorized to work, years after his naturalization ceremony.
The post D.C. Restaurants Brace for a Wave of Immigration-Related Workforce Losses appeared first on American Renaissance.
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