Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is a federal law enforcement agency that operates under the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). ICE is the agency primarily responsible for enforcing U.S. immigration laws. As part of the Trump administration’s immigration policy, a number of U.S. cities have seen increased ICE presence since the start of 2025.
Conversations with industry experts and restaurant owners reveal that this presence is having a direct impact on restaurants, their employees, and their customers. The discussion that follows is not an evaluation of immigration policy or enforcement tactics.
This is strictly a look at how immigration enforcement affects restaurants, and, more specifically, how the presence of ICE in certain cities is affecting labor supply and customer foot traffic, and creating new operating risks for many restaurants.
There are many reasons that the restaurant industry is uniquely affected by changing immigration policies and enforcement practices. Immigrants make up a significant part of the restaurant workforce as well as the workforce in related industries such as agriculture, food production, and transportation. Immigrant-owned businesses also form a significant portion of the restaurant industry, especially in ethnically diverse city centers.
Recent immigration enforcement actions in cities like Minnesota provide a clear example of how ICE enforcement and restaurants are closely linked.
Operation Metro Surge is an immigration enforcement and deportation campaign focused on Minnesota and St. Paul. The operation began in December 2025 with the arrival of ICE agents in the Twin Cities, but soon expanded throughout the state of Minnesota. The Twin Cities have seen the most direct concentration of ICE agents, with an estimated 3,000 agents operating in a metro area served by roughly 1,100 local police officers.
In January, the DHS called Operation Metro Surge the single largest immigration enforcement operation in the agency’s history. This operation has had direct consequences for the restaurant industry in the Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan area.
The Restaurant Opportunities Center of Minnesota and a workers’ group, the CTUL (Centro De Trabajadores Unidos En La Lucha [Center of Workers United in Struggle]), recently held a joint press conference featuring speakers from local restaurants. Owners and operators said they’ve lost between 50 and 80% of their revenue since the start of Operation Metro Surge.
This operation follows similar campaigns in other major cities including Los Angeles, Chicago, and Washington, D.C. Together, these immigration enforcement operations provide case examples of what can happen to the restaurant industry in cities, towns, and communities experiencing heightened immigration enforcement.
Back of House operations expert Dan Durkin reached out to industry insiders through the Kitchen Confidential subreddit. We heard directly from restaurant owners, restaurant workers, and consumers living and working in the Twin Cities. Their first-hand observations provide insight into how immigration enforcement affects restaurants.
“The risk wasn't even just at work, but commuting in general. I have coworkers that hadn't come to work and essentially sheltered in place since before Christmas when the surge first started.”
Because of the high concentration of immigrant workers in the industry, restaurant workers have faced very real ramifications. According to many restaurant workers and owners in Minneapolis, ICE raids and traffic stops have targeted undocumented immigrants, legal immigrants, naturalized citizens, and U.S. citizens alike.
As one restaurant worker told us, “We had ICE in our dining room threatening to detain our bartender because she couldn't provide proof of citizenship on the spot. She is Puerto Rican.” (Puerto Rico is an American territory and those born in Puerto Rico are American citizens.)
Heightened ICE presence has resulted directly in increased arrests and detentions. According to TracReports.org, more than 73% of those currently being detained by ICE have no criminal record. In February, the DHS announced that it had arrested more than 4,000 undocumented immigrants as part of Operation Metro Surge, but has not provided a breakdown of detainees based on criminal history.
So as immigration enforcement agents focus their efforts on restaurants, many restaurant employees are traveling to work in fear regardless of their immigration status or criminal history. Many have skipped shifts and sheltered indoors to avoid confrontation with ICE agents. In many other cases, restaurant workers have been swept up, arrested, and detained during enforcement actions.
Altogether, these events are affecting the morale, mental health, physical well-being, and safety of restaurant workers, owners, and operators in Minneapolis and other cities that have experienced heightened immigration enforcement.
“A bunch of times we had back of the house staff call out because ICE was in their neighborhood. Know that this might happen. We were dead so it didn't matter.”
Typical restaurant industry labor challenges like staffing shortages have been magnified in places with a large ICE presence. Portland, Maine is one of the latest cities to find itself at the center of an immigration enforcement surge. Under Operation Catch of the Day, Portland restaurant owners are reporting that staff members are calling out of work for days and weeks at a time to avoid engagement with ICE, says an article from SevenFiftyDaily, a drinks industry newsletter.
The article cites the owner of a popular Portland tapas restaurant called Sur Lie. She explained that even naturalized citizens face the risk of detention and are therefore staying home. Kitchens and dining rooms are shorthanded as owners and their employees alike choose worker safety over shift staffing demands. These labor issues can have ripple effects for restaurants.
“It doesn’t make us be our best, and we need to be our best in a city full of creative restaurants and bars,” says Sur Lie chef Sam Helmke. Staffing shortages are adding additional pressure for already-strained operations.
SevenFifty reports that staffing shortages at local restaurants have meant longer hours for employees on shift, higher burnout rates, longer customer wait times, reduced operating hours, and even temporary closures.
“A lot of restaurants here have kept doors locked while open. Business is severely depressed.”
One of the most consistently reported effects of ICE presence is significantly reduced restaurant business. Though numbers vary, an article from Mpls.-St.Paul Magazine says that among restaurants interviewed, owners reported revenue losses between 20 and 70% since the beginning of Operation Metro Surge.
This follows the pattern seen in other cities that have faced heightened ICE presence. For instance, during a two-month campaign in Chicago that ICE called Operation Midway Blitz, restaurants reported losses ranging from 15 to 50% of their revenue. And during a two-month period of intensified enforcement in Orange County, California, Restaurant Business Online reports that local businesses lost $59 million in economic output.
The article from Mplis-St.Paul Magazine concludes, “Since ICE operations have escalated,…foot traffic is down; fewer people are coming out to eat.”
“Immigrant owned businesses are even worse off.”
In addition to focusing their efforts on the restaurant industry, ICE operations have given particular attention to immigrant-owned businesses. The combination of disappearing foot traffic, targeted raids and precautionary closures is making basic survival difficult for many immigrant-owned restaurants.
This is an impact with the potential for industry-wide consequences. FSR Magazine says that 36% of restaurant owners in the U.S. are immigrants. These restaurant owners employ people and contribute to the economic vitality of their communities.
Heightened ICE presence in major cities has been shown to increase the probability of permanent closure for restaurants in general, and for immigrant-owned restaurants in particular.
One example from Minneapolis underscores this effect. The article fromMpls.St.Paul Magazine notes that the culturally diverse Lake Street neighborhood, home to many immigrant-owned restaurants, has been heavily patrolled by ICE agents.
The neighborhood is home to Mercado Central, a market cooperative hosting 35 family-owned vendors operating since 1997. Collectively, the article reports, these vendors have lost 90 to 100% of their income during Operation Metro Surge, pushing the entire cooperative to the brink of closure.
The restaurant industry and immigration policy will always be closely linked. So major changes to enforcement policy and approach will inevitably affect our businesses, employees, and customers.
But ICE is not the only news story affecting the restaurant industry. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter to get weekly updates on the top stories affecting our industry, sent directly to your inbox.