{"id":141929,"date":"2026-01-29T00:52:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-29T00:52:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/141929\/"},"modified":"2026-01-29T00:52:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-29T00:52:07","slug":"dallas-coffee-chain-faces-backlash-after-staff-walkout-tied-to-ice-discount-debate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/141929\/","title":{"rendered":"Dallas coffee chain faces backlash after staff walkout tied to ICE discount debate"},"content":{"rendered":"

A growing Dallas-based coffee chain finds itself worried about the impact of being caught up in a political firestorm after a handful of employees walked off the job over a first responder discount that they believed included Immigration and Customs Enforcement<\/a> officers.\u00a0<\/p>\n

White Rhino Coffee has been steadily growing with 200 employees, promoting its 11 DFW locations as a welcoming environment for everyone.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“We always say we’ve been creating community around coffee,” said Sara Escamilla, the White Rhino CEO.<\/p>\n

But White Rhino’s chief executive officer says the company is facing severe online backlash and threats of boycotts after a walkout by now former employees over whether ICE officers were entitled to first responder discounts.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“Our first responder discount has been something for a long time that has been very broad, and our shop managers have had autonomy to determine who receives it or not,” Escamilla said.<\/p>\n

The manager at White Rhino’s Downtown Dallas location quit last week and posted a message about ICE officers on Facebook that stated:<\/p>\n

“I was told that these murderous mercenaries are not only welcome at our table but encouraged to patron our shops by offering them a First Responder discount. This put me in a position to either compromise everything I believe in or abandon my team. Considering this call from leadership, I gladly exit my position as Shop Manager.”<\/p>\n

But White Rhino’s leadership insists that ICE officers were never formally included in the first responder discount and says they have since clarified the policy to not include any federal authorities, “to reward local heroes, local police officers, firefighters, EMTs.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

Still, the 20-year-old coffee chain, along with Emporium Pies, which it also owns, says it’s been receiving online threats to quote “…ruin the company.”<\/p>\n

White Rhino has become the latest business to get drawn into the divisive political issue that’s damaged other companies across the nation.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“It’s been really difficult,” said Escamilla. “To see so much hate spewed at us has been painful.”<\/p>\n

White Rhino believes the controversy will negatively affect its business on top of the winter storm, which forced its cafes to close for nearly a week.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The company can only hope the outrage, along with the ice, will thaw out over time.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“We want to be a place where everyone gets a seat at the table,” Escamilla said.<\/p>\n

\n More from CBS News\n <\/p>\n

In:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A growing Dallas-based coffee chain finds itself worried about the impact of being caught up in a political…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":141930,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[3330,102,104,103,11207,325,6956],"class_list":["post-141929","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-dallas","tag-coffee","tag-dallas","tag-dallas-headlines","tag-dallas-news","tag-food-amp-drink","tag-small-business","tag-u-s-immigration-and-customs-enforcement"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141929","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=141929"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141929\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/141930"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=141929"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=141929"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=141929"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}