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A group of Twin Cities restaurant workers are asking the state's hospitality business association to step up protections for workers amid the federal immigration operation. They say some employers aren't doing enough to support their immigrant staff.

The group delivered a petition Friday to the business association Hospitality Minnesota. It asks the association to support a campaign they’re calling “86 ICE.” 

It asks restaurant owners to make plans for what to do if ICE shows up, keep ICE agents out of private areas and let employees take time off if they’re afraid to come to work. It also asks Hospitality Minnesota to meet with restaurant workers about the campaign.

Restaurant worker Patti said she has only left her house to go to work during the operation. She asked to use only her first name for her safety.

Patti said her boss has been supportive of immigrant staff who need financial help or need to take time off.

“I know not everyone has been so lucky as me. Sadly, not all the bosses care about the federal activities and how they have threatened the safety and wellbeing of their staff,” Patti said in Spanish translated through an interpreter. 

Patti said all restaurants should be supporting their workers. She said a friend who works at a different restaurant was detained on his bus route to work last month, after his boss told workers it was their responsibility to find ways to come in.

Federal officials announced the surge in ICE officers will come to an end in Minnesota, but restaurant owners and workers said those demands are still important, even after the federal operation comes to an end. 

“ICE isn't going anywhere. It was here before the operation, and it will continue to be here, and it will continue to disappear our neighbors in the middle of the night,” said Miguel Hernandez, who owns Lito's Burritos on Lake Street. “Restaurant owners, managers, corporations, please listen to your staff, because if you're missing one of them, you know you're going to have a bad day.”

Hernandez said many restaurants are already taking the steps the group is demanding, but said support from Hospitality Minnesota would push more restaurants to do so, too.

A group of workers headed into Hospitality Minnesota’s office building in downtown Minneapolis to ask for a meeting and deliver a “valentine” — a large pink posterboard outlining their campaign and asking the business association to sign on. The group said a desk worker in the building took the poster to pass along, but said no Hospitality Minnesota employees were in the office. 

Hospitality Minnesota did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the campaign. 

In a statement released Thursday, Hospitality Minnesota urged lawmakers to pass funding for small businesses that lost money during the immigration operation. But workers said they want the association to take a stronger stance on protecting their workers.

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Immigration enforcement in Minnesota

Estelle Timar-Wilcox

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A group of Twin Cities restaurant workers say some employers aren't doing enough to support their immigrant staff.

'86 ICE': Campaign asks restaurant owners to protect immigrant staff

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