By Tim Carman, Warren Rojas and Jenny Gathright
May 14, 2025 at 2:46 p.m. EDT
Three front-of-the-house workers at Millie's have left the Spring Valley restaurant after Homeland Security agents visited it last week. (Deb Lindsey/For The Washington Post)
In the days since May 6, when agents with the Department of Homeland Security began demanding paperwork from restaurants across Washington to prove their employees were eligible to work in the country, cooks and servers at multiple establishments have quit, no-showed or requested time off. The sudden talent void has prompted fears that restaurants could face a worker shortage, potentially leading to more closures in an industry already expected to contract this year.
Owners or operators of four restaurants confirmed to The Washington Post that they had lost employees, whether permanently or temporarily, since DHS agents visited last week. Three of the proprietors spoke on the condition of anonymity because they did not want to become a bigger target for federal immigration officials or did not want other staff to walk off the job, too. At Millie’s, where at least eight DHS agents entered the Spring Valley restaurant via multiple access points, the chief executive of the parent company, Georgetown Events, confirmed that three front-of-the-house workers had left the establishment.
These staff losses were likely to be just the tip of the iceberg, numerous people told The Post, and they began last week at a particularly critical moment for the D.C. hospitality industry: just days before Mother’s Day.
In a letter to Maria Stavropoulos, a supervisory special agent in charge for Homeland Security Investigations, the president and chief executive of the Restaurant Association Metropolitan Washington spelled out the damage that the DHS visits had on local restaurants.
“The timing of these visits has also had an economic ripple effect. As you may know, Mother’s Day weekend is one of the busiest — and most financially important — weekends of the year for restaurants,” RAMW’s Shawn Townsend wrote to Stavropoulos, who had signed some of the notices to restaurants, demanding the I-9 forms to verify employee eligibility to work in the United States.
Townsend shared his May 8 letter with The Post.
“The fear and confusion surrounding these enforcement actions, combined with the spread of misinformation, have already led to significant disruptions in staffing, reservation cancellations, and a general chilling effect across the industry,” Townsend continued in his letter. “We are deeply concerned about the potential economic losses tied to uncertainty and miscommunication, especially for small, independent operators who rely on this weekend to stay financially afloat.”
On Tuesday, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement issued a release noting that the agency, working with other law enforcement groups, had “apprehended 189 illegal aliens and served notices of inspection to 187 local businesses” during an enhanced targeted enforcement operation in the District. ICE specifically singled out four immigrant detainees, ranging in age from 25 to 47, whose alleged criminal histories includes drug possession, aggravated assault, sexual assault, indecent exposure, simple assault, possession of a prohibited weapon, driving while intoxicated and brandishing a machete. No known restaurant workers were among those arrested.
The four-day action, from May 6 to 9, was part of President Donald Trump’s executive order issued in late March to make Washington “safe and beautiful.” The administration also has privately expressed the goal of deporting 1 million immigrants in a year.
“This operation was successful despite Sanctuary City politicians who refuse to honor immigration detainers and release illegal alien criminals back into American communities. Under the leadership of President Trump and Secretary [Kristi L.] Noem, DHS will continue to deliver law-and-order to crime-ridden cities, including America’s capital,” said Tricia McLaughlin, assistant secretary for public affairs with DHS, in a statement to The Post. “Our message to criminal illegal aliens is clear: LEAVE NOW. If you don’t, we will find you, we will deport you, and you will never return.”
Luis Reyes, owner of Lauriol Plaza in Dupont Circle, in 2018. (Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP/Getty Images)
Staff in the kitchen at Lauriol Plaza in 2018. (Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP/Getty Images)
Several restaurant owners are worried that the DHS sweeps will hamper the industry as employees, undocumented or not, leave the hospitality sector out of concern for their welfare. Ava Benach, a D.C. attorney specializing in immigration law, said restaurants will, without question, lose workers. She said it will happen in two ways: Workers will ghost establishments and no longer show up for shifts. Or they will be required to quit if, after a government audit and subsequent inquiries with the restaurant, workers still cannot provide I-9 paperwork that matches DHS records.
Restaurants that knowingly employ illegal workers, or continue to employ them after an audit, can face fines and criminal proceedings, Benach said.
“It all comes down to just exactly how negligent or reckless the employer is,” Benach told The Post. “There’s clerical mistakes and then there’s sort of willful blindness and then, lastly, complicity.”
One owner suggested that a worker exodus could contribute to more closures as restaurants continue to deal with the ongoing pressures of inflation, crime, high rents and the increasing labor costs tied to Initiative 82, a 2022 D.C. law that gradually eliminates the lower minimum wage for tipped workers. (Mayor Muriel E. Bowser has announced plans to repeal 1-82.)
“If they want to go by the book, there is not many restaurants left in D.C.,” Luis Reyes said about DHS enforcement actions, including the I-9 audits that dozens of D.C. restaurants apparently face. Once an undocumented immigrant himself, Reyes is co-owner of Lauriol Plaza in Dupont Circle, where DHS agents last week served a notice of inspection. The native of El Salvador said that most restaurants in Washington are likely to have undocumented workers, who perform the kind of tasks many people won’t.
“Who will wash dishes? Nobody wants to do that. Only the hard workers, the people who come from Honduras and El Salvador, they happily do that,” Reyes said. “They want to make money and send [it] to their family.”
Workers, even if they are in the country legally, are terrified right now, said Josh Phillips, co-owner of Ghostburger in Shaw, which was visited by DHS agents last week. Phillips expects a “serious contraction of the labor market” for D.C. restaurants, as workers opt to leave the industry of their own volition. This in turn will cause wages to increase, Phillips said, a bonus for workers but another burden for restaurants that can least afford it.
Diners at Ghostburger in 2022. (Deb Lindsey/For The Washington Post)
“Pick a job category,” Phillips said. “If you’ve got fewer of them, everybody else gets more expensive. You’re going to start seeing bidding wars. You’re going to see people hopping from restaurant to restaurant again.”
Marisa Casey is chief executive of Georgetown Events, the parent company of Millie’s. On Monday morning, she was camped out at a table at the Spring Valley restaurant, waiting to see if DHS agents would arrive to pick up the requested I-9 paperwork for the 115 or so employees at Millie’s. Even though agents said they would fetch the documents at the corporate office of Georgetown Events, Casey was worried about a repeat DHS visit at the restaurant, which had unsettled her staff. (DHS agents did pick up the paperwork at the corporate office later that day, Casey said.)
The DHS visit to Millie’s prompted a stern letter from Philip Hawken, director of human resources for Georgetown Events, to immigration officials. Casey shared the letter with The Post.
In the letter, dated May 6, the same day as the DHS visit, Hawken asked the agency to direct its inquiries to him, not to the staff at Millie’s, who have been told that they are not legally required to speak with agents or provide any documents.
“My hope is to avoid the unnecessary fear-mongering that took place this morning,” Hawken wrote. “Our employees have rights, they have been notified of these rights and any further questions or needs should be addressed directly to me.”
During a Thursday meeting with the D.C. Democratic Party in Northwest Washington, Bowser (D) said there is little the District can do about lawful audits. In response to questions from residents about how to help immigrant neighbors — and criticism from some who suggested she was not doing enough to address immigrant fears — Bowser said her administration was reaching out to restaurants and the restaurant association to help them navigate the current environment.
But she said she cannot stop DHS and ICE from doing their jobs.
Geoff Tracy, who has owned and operated a string of restaurants in D.C., Maryland and Virginia over the past 25 years, confirmed that DHS agents visited one of his restaurants last week. (Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg/Getty Images)
Customers enjoy happy hour at Chef Geoff's in Vienna, Virginia, in 2018. (Matt Barakat/AP)
“This is Donald Trump’s America. They should be afraid, okay? And there’s nothing I can do to make them unafraid of a president and an administration whose focus is terrorizing them,” Bowser told the gathering of several dozen residents. “So I don’t want anybody to be confused here that the D.C. government can stop ICE. So don’t go around telling people that we can stand in front of ICE and stop them from doing what is legal.”
Benach, the immigration attorney, said DHS and ICE are not required to contact local officials before launching audit sweeps. But, she said, the agencies may do so as a courtesy, particularly if agents appear on city streets in uniforms with weapons. A spokesman for the mayor did not respond to a question about whether the District received warning of the DHS visits, but Bowser said last week that no D.C. police were involved in the sweep. The ICE press release Tuesday confirmed that.
Geoff Tracy, who has owned and operated a string of restaurants in D.C., Maryland and Virginia over the past 25 years, wondered what the Trump administration is after with these disruptive visits. He confirmed that DHS agents visited one of his restaurants last week and said his attorneys are responding to the federal inquiry, which is projected to take two to three months to review.
“The question is: Why is DHS focusing on D.C. restaurants?” Tracy told The Post.
If the White House is genuinely interested in bolstering American businesses, Tracy said, the administration “could simply implement an E-Verify requirement for all U.S. employers — which would save them from having to do time-intensive I-9 audits.”
Townsend, the RAMW executive, also has questions for DHS. He outlined several in his letter to Stavropoulos and the agency. Among them, he wanted to know what criteria were used to select the restaurants that received audits. He also wanted to know what were the next steps after a restaurant had submitted its I-9 paperwork. How long would the process take? But first of all, he wanted to know whether these audits were part of a “broader enforcement effort? Should we expect further visits in the region?”
Townsend has not received any answers yet.
A waitress takes orders at Lauriol Plaza. (Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP/Getty Images)
Source (Archive)
May 14, 2025 at 2:46 p.m. EDT
Three front-of-the-house workers at Millie's have left the Spring Valley restaurant after Homeland Security agents visited it last week. (Deb Lindsey/For The Washington Post)
In the days since May 6, when agents with the Department of Homeland Security began demanding paperwork from restaurants across Washington to prove their employees were eligible to work in the country, cooks and servers at multiple establishments have quit, no-showed or requested time off. The sudden talent void has prompted fears that restaurants could face a worker shortage, potentially leading to more closures in an industry already expected to contract this year.
Owners or operators of four restaurants confirmed to The Washington Post that they had lost employees, whether permanently or temporarily, since DHS agents visited last week. Three of the proprietors spoke on the condition of anonymity because they did not want to become a bigger target for federal immigration officials or did not want other staff to walk off the job, too. At Millie’s, where at least eight DHS agents entered the Spring Valley restaurant via multiple access points, the chief executive of the parent company, Georgetown Events, confirmed that three front-of-the-house workers had left the establishment.
These staff losses were likely to be just the tip of the iceberg, numerous people told The Post, and they began last week at a particularly critical moment for the D.C. hospitality industry: just days before Mother’s Day.
In a letter to Maria Stavropoulos, a supervisory special agent in charge for Homeland Security Investigations, the president and chief executive of the Restaurant Association Metropolitan Washington spelled out the damage that the DHS visits had on local restaurants.
“The timing of these visits has also had an economic ripple effect. As you may know, Mother’s Day weekend is one of the busiest — and most financially important — weekends of the year for restaurants,” RAMW’s Shawn Townsend wrote to Stavropoulos, who had signed some of the notices to restaurants, demanding the I-9 forms to verify employee eligibility to work in the United States.
Townsend shared his May 8 letter with The Post.
“The fear and confusion surrounding these enforcement actions, combined with the spread of misinformation, have already led to significant disruptions in staffing, reservation cancellations, and a general chilling effect across the industry,” Townsend continued in his letter. “We are deeply concerned about the potential economic losses tied to uncertainty and miscommunication, especially for small, independent operators who rely on this weekend to stay financially afloat.”
On Tuesday, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement issued a release noting that the agency, working with other law enforcement groups, had “apprehended 189 illegal aliens and served notices of inspection to 187 local businesses” during an enhanced targeted enforcement operation in the District. ICE specifically singled out four immigrant detainees, ranging in age from 25 to 47, whose alleged criminal histories includes drug possession, aggravated assault, sexual assault, indecent exposure, simple assault, possession of a prohibited weapon, driving while intoxicated and brandishing a machete. No known restaurant workers were among those arrested.
The four-day action, from May 6 to 9, was part of President Donald Trump’s executive order issued in late March to make Washington “safe and beautiful.” The administration also has privately expressed the goal of deporting 1 million immigrants in a year.
“This operation was successful despite Sanctuary City politicians who refuse to honor immigration detainers and release illegal alien criminals back into American communities. Under the leadership of President Trump and Secretary [Kristi L.] Noem, DHS will continue to deliver law-and-order to crime-ridden cities, including America’s capital,” said Tricia McLaughlin, assistant secretary for public affairs with DHS, in a statement to The Post. “Our message to criminal illegal aliens is clear: LEAVE NOW. If you don’t, we will find you, we will deport you, and you will never return.”
Luis Reyes, owner of Lauriol Plaza in Dupont Circle, in 2018. (Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP/Getty Images)
Staff in the kitchen at Lauriol Plaza in 2018. (Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP/Getty Images)
Several restaurant owners are worried that the DHS sweeps will hamper the industry as employees, undocumented or not, leave the hospitality sector out of concern for their welfare. Ava Benach, a D.C. attorney specializing in immigration law, said restaurants will, without question, lose workers. She said it will happen in two ways: Workers will ghost establishments and no longer show up for shifts. Or they will be required to quit if, after a government audit and subsequent inquiries with the restaurant, workers still cannot provide I-9 paperwork that matches DHS records.
Restaurants that knowingly employ illegal workers, or continue to employ them after an audit, can face fines and criminal proceedings, Benach said.
“It all comes down to just exactly how negligent or reckless the employer is,” Benach told The Post. “There’s clerical mistakes and then there’s sort of willful blindness and then, lastly, complicity.”
One owner suggested that a worker exodus could contribute to more closures as restaurants continue to deal with the ongoing pressures of inflation, crime, high rents and the increasing labor costs tied to Initiative 82, a 2022 D.C. law that gradually eliminates the lower minimum wage for tipped workers. (Mayor Muriel E. Bowser has announced plans to repeal 1-82.)
“If they want to go by the book, there is not many restaurants left in D.C.,” Luis Reyes said about DHS enforcement actions, including the I-9 audits that dozens of D.C. restaurants apparently face. Once an undocumented immigrant himself, Reyes is co-owner of Lauriol Plaza in Dupont Circle, where DHS agents last week served a notice of inspection. The native of El Salvador said that most restaurants in Washington are likely to have undocumented workers, who perform the kind of tasks many people won’t.
“Who will wash dishes? Nobody wants to do that. Only the hard workers, the people who come from Honduras and El Salvador, they happily do that,” Reyes said. “They want to make money and send [it] to their family.”
Workers, even if they are in the country legally, are terrified right now, said Josh Phillips, co-owner of Ghostburger in Shaw, which was visited by DHS agents last week. Phillips expects a “serious contraction of the labor market” for D.C. restaurants, as workers opt to leave the industry of their own volition. This in turn will cause wages to increase, Phillips said, a bonus for workers but another burden for restaurants that can least afford it.
Diners at Ghostburger in 2022. (Deb Lindsey/For The Washington Post)
“Pick a job category,” Phillips said. “If you’ve got fewer of them, everybody else gets more expensive. You’re going to start seeing bidding wars. You’re going to see people hopping from restaurant to restaurant again.”
Marisa Casey is chief executive of Georgetown Events, the parent company of Millie’s. On Monday morning, she was camped out at a table at the Spring Valley restaurant, waiting to see if DHS agents would arrive to pick up the requested I-9 paperwork for the 115 or so employees at Millie’s. Even though agents said they would fetch the documents at the corporate office of Georgetown Events, Casey was worried about a repeat DHS visit at the restaurant, which had unsettled her staff. (DHS agents did pick up the paperwork at the corporate office later that day, Casey said.)
The DHS visit to Millie’s prompted a stern letter from Philip Hawken, director of human resources for Georgetown Events, to immigration officials. Casey shared the letter with The Post.
In the letter, dated May 6, the same day as the DHS visit, Hawken asked the agency to direct its inquiries to him, not to the staff at Millie’s, who have been told that they are not legally required to speak with agents or provide any documents.
“My hope is to avoid the unnecessary fear-mongering that took place this morning,” Hawken wrote. “Our employees have rights, they have been notified of these rights and any further questions or needs should be addressed directly to me.”
During a Thursday meeting with the D.C. Democratic Party in Northwest Washington, Bowser (D) said there is little the District can do about lawful audits. In response to questions from residents about how to help immigrant neighbors — and criticism from some who suggested she was not doing enough to address immigrant fears — Bowser said her administration was reaching out to restaurants and the restaurant association to help them navigate the current environment.
But she said she cannot stop DHS and ICE from doing their jobs.
Geoff Tracy, who has owned and operated a string of restaurants in D.C., Maryland and Virginia over the past 25 years, confirmed that DHS agents visited one of his restaurants last week. (Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg/Getty Images)
Customers enjoy happy hour at Chef Geoff's in Vienna, Virginia, in 2018. (Matt Barakat/AP)
“This is Donald Trump’s America. They should be afraid, okay? And there’s nothing I can do to make them unafraid of a president and an administration whose focus is terrorizing them,” Bowser told the gathering of several dozen residents. “So I don’t want anybody to be confused here that the D.C. government can stop ICE. So don’t go around telling people that we can stand in front of ICE and stop them from doing what is legal.”
Benach, the immigration attorney, said DHS and ICE are not required to contact local officials before launching audit sweeps. But, she said, the agencies may do so as a courtesy, particularly if agents appear on city streets in uniforms with weapons. A spokesman for the mayor did not respond to a question about whether the District received warning of the DHS visits, but Bowser said last week that no D.C. police were involved in the sweep. The ICE press release Tuesday confirmed that.
Geoff Tracy, who has owned and operated a string of restaurants in D.C., Maryland and Virginia over the past 25 years, wondered what the Trump administration is after with these disruptive visits. He confirmed that DHS agents visited one of his restaurants last week and said his attorneys are responding to the federal inquiry, which is projected to take two to three months to review.
“The question is: Why is DHS focusing on D.C. restaurants?” Tracy told The Post.
If the White House is genuinely interested in bolstering American businesses, Tracy said, the administration “could simply implement an E-Verify requirement for all U.S. employers — which would save them from having to do time-intensive I-9 audits.”
Townsend, the RAMW executive, also has questions for DHS. He outlined several in his letter to Stavropoulos and the agency. Among them, he wanted to know what criteria were used to select the restaurants that received audits. He also wanted to know what were the next steps after a restaurant had submitted its I-9 paperwork. How long would the process take? But first of all, he wanted to know whether these audits were part of a “broader enforcement effort? Should we expect further visits in the region?”
Townsend has not received any answers yet.
A waitress takes orders at Lauriol Plaza. (Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP/Getty Images)
Source (Archive)
