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ICE is on my mind right now, and I don’t mean the kind hanging out under the snow on North Texas streets. Last week, I was contacted via Instagram DM by Margot Stacy, who shared a link to her post about quitting her job as a manager at White Rhino Coffee after a higher-up at the company issued a directive to give ICE agents a first-responder discount. I passed the story on to Lauren Drews Daniels at the Dallas Observer, who published a thoroughly researched story about the incident, and had to work hard to get a statement from the reticent leadership at White Rhino, which denied the directive and asserted that the person who issued it did not have the authority to make that decision. The company has not made a statement about whether that person was fired or faced consequences, but the Observer article notes that 10 people walked off their jobs following the incident.
The company later posted a hand-wringing Instagram post that supports that assertion without directly saying it. The phrasing outlines who qualifies for a first-responder discount without explicitly stating that ICE does not, which is a statement in and of itself. Closing by saying “[W]e love everyone. No matter who you are, what you believe, or what your job is,” is tantamount to embracing ICE. This writer thinks that is shameful.
ICE has also been on my mind as I, like everyone else, watch the events in Minneapolis. I can’t help but think about my former Eater colleague, Justine Jones, who left the company to take a job as the food and dining editor of Mpls.St.Paul magazine. She is one of many great food journalists there, doing the hard work of writing about how ICE's current activities affect immigrants who work in kitchens and bars. Justine has been curating a list of ways to support immigrant communities at this time, including a list of mutual aid organizations to donate to if you’re so inclined.
What I can’t stop thinking about is that Texas has between 1.7 and 2.1 million undocumented immigrants. Minnesota has between 78,000 and 100,000. The obvious conclusion here is that one red state is being far less targeted than a blue state, with Governor Tim Walz, the VP candidate in 2024, who repeatedly called Trump and his running mate’s behavior weird, as a prime target. Texas is not untouched by Trump’s policies. The Texas Tribune crunched the numbers, and undocumented immigrant arrests rose from 85 a day under the last year and a half of Biden’s term to 176 a day in Trump’s first six months.
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For restaurant owners and customers who aren’t sure what to do but are aware their employees are at risk, or have seen their employees be detained at their place of work, and are seeing sales drop because of it, the James Beard Foundation issued a call to action. It urges everyone to call their Senators ahead of the January 30 (that’s today) budget vote and urge them to vote against it. Texans calling Coryn and Cruz are used to being blown off, but Cruz supports an investigation into ICE’s killings of Renne Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis. And you can specify that one of your concerns is that the White House removed language from the version of the bill the House passed, stipulating that the ICE budget not be used to detain American citizens.
Stacy spoke up on behalf of Hispanic and Black employees whose communities are being targeted, whether they are in the country legally, as permanent citizens, or undocumented and following the established process of becoming a citizen. It begs the question: What should restaurant and bar owners be doing to protect their employees? What obligation do they have in a business sense, and what should their moral stance be? For me, an Instagram post from East Dallas Middle Ground Coffee, in reaction to but not referencing these events, hit home. The message of acceptance for those who are different from us, of building community with neighbors, and, most importantly, of acknowledging that coffee isn’t just coffee. The shop notes which South American countries it sources beans from, including Venezuela, where Trump recently captured the president and expressed a desire to take control of its oil industry. It also notes the role coffeehouses have played in protest culture and that coffee was a catalyst for the American Revolution. Like most foods, coffee is political. Pretending it isn’t is cowardly and fallacious.
Little Joy Cafe made a post that was even more to the point, writing this caption: “Hate has no place here, which is why ICE will not be served here.” It was under a photo from the cafe with text announcing that 100 percent of proceeds from sales on Friday, January 30, will be donated to the Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services (RACIES), a Texas-based organization that helps undocumented people navigate the immigration system, providing legal aid and social services. I’ll be there on Friday with my laptop, working on whatever project is on top of the pile. If you can’t make it, great news: you can become a donor to the organization.
So, where are you going for your next cup of joe? In a capitalist society where we vote with our money on everything, even the smallest purchases, the answer actually matters. And this is your reminder that the Starbucks Union is still on strike for better pay, fair schedules, protections against harassment, and the repair of broken equipment, so don’t cross that picket line.