That was followed by calls on social media for a National Day of Action<\/a>, including not working or shopping on Friday, Jan. 30, in solidarity with the Democratic-leaning city of Minneapolis, which was targeted by the Trump administration to face a flood of immigration agents in Operation Metro Surge<\/a> in late December. When ICE arrived, tensions ratcheted up, and protesters took to the streets, leading to the deaths of immigrant advocates Renee Good<\/a> and Alex Pretti<\/a>. ICE arrested<\/a> around 3,000 people just in the first half of January in the city. Of those, 150 were U.S. citizens, and one was 5-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos<\/a>, who a judge recently ordered returned home from a detention facility near San Antonio.<\/p>\n There have also been chilling reports of customers and workers being detained by ICE agents at restaurants. In the small town of Willmar, Minneapolis, agents ate lunch at a Mexican restaurant, then returned to follow workers after closing and arrest them<\/a>. After ICE agents raided another Mexican restaurant, the owner reported that many workers were too afraid to return<\/a>, and the restaurant had to close until community members volunteered to work shifts. The American Civil Liberties Union shared a statement on Instagram from a citizen it is representing who was arrested by ICE.<\/p>\n \u201cICE agents dragged me out of the restaurant and put me in a headlock on the ground,\u201d M.H. says. \u201cI repeated, \u2018I\u2019m a citizen, I have I.D.\u2019 The officer kept saying, \u2018That don\u2019t matter, that don\u2019t matter.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Demands from customers on both sides of the political divide, and in some cases a sense of personal obligation, set restaurant owners in Dallas scrambling to figure out their philosophy, talk to staff about what they are and aren\u2019t comfortable doing, and whether they need to clarify their stance on serving ICE agents.<\/p>\n Then there was the question of whether to join the National Day of Action, which would add another hit to their bottom lines, already stretched after being closed for several days that same week due to a winter storm\u2019s blanket of ice.<\/p>\n Some local businesses, including Lucia<\/a>, Cultivar Coffee<\/a> and Herby\u2019s Burgers<\/a>, posted on social media that each would donate to charities that help undocumented people navigate the legal system. Others simply posted their solidarity and support for anyone participating in the strike, most explicitly stating their opposition to ICE.<\/p>\n Beyond the National Day of Action, ICE\u2019s actions have already affected Texas restaurants. Black Box Intelligence, which tracks restaurant data, reported<\/a> that restaurant sales are down in places where 40% or more of the community is Hispanic.\u00a0<\/p>\n A report from the TRA<\/a> also found that \u201cdue to immigration enforcement activities this year, 19% of Texas restaurant operators indicated that they lost employees, while 23% reported fewer job applicants or acceptances and 19% saw customer traffic decrease.\u201d<\/p>\n Now, many are struggling with whether to serve agents, how to keep their staff safe and whether to declare their position on Instagram. The Dallas Observer spoke with three hospitality professionals about where they stand, what they are and aren\u2019t saying to customers and staff and whether their businesses have been affected.\u00a0<\/p>\n Little Joy Cafe<\/p>\n Russell Tibbits and Allison Macalik of Little Joy Cafe had to make decisions that went far beyond the typical actions of a community coffee shop last week.<\/p>\n Macalik says messages poured in on Instagram and in texts from friends after former White Rhino manager Margot Stacy posted that she quit her job because of the cafe\u2019s ICE policy. People wanted to know where Little Joy stood and if it would respond. While they were debating, the two sent a text to their staff letting them know ICE is not welcome in the cafe and will not be served. They also consulted a lawyer to find out what is allowed. (Officers of the agency are allowed to enter public areas of any business, according to the National Immigration Law Center<\/a>, but need a warrant to enter a non-public area of the business. Businesses can legally refuse to serve ICE officers.)<\/p>\n They decide to donate all of its earnings from last Friday\u2019s National Day of Action to Vecinos Unidos<\/a>, a West Dallas activist group that supports immigrants and their families.\u00a0<\/p>\n Macalik also offered any help or a job to Stacy, if needed. Little Joy is interviewing four other employees Stacy referred who also quit White Rhino.\u00a0<\/p>\n On the National Day of Action, the cafe raised $2,000, which Tibbits says is about five times their normal earnings.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was a ton of regulars, people I\u2019d never seen, people who said they\u2019ve wanted to come in but didn\u2019t know who we were or our vibe \u2014 are we really for the community? And people who saw our Instagram post,\u201d Macalik says.<\/p>\n The reaction was better than they expected, Macalik and Tibbits say. In person, it felt like a celebratory day, minus a few complaints about service being affected by the additional customers. Online, there were hardly any negative remarks.<\/p>\n \u201cNothing on our Instagram, not one ugly thing,\u201d Macalik says. \u201cA lot of [negativity] happens on Facebook, and I shy away from it.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n The pair already donates a percentage of their monthly earnings to local causes and charities, and they are shifting to a quarterly focus to give more over a longer period. \u201cWe started this coffee shop not necessarily for us, but for this community because we love it,\u201d Tibbits says.<\/p>\n Black Swan<\/p>\n Gabe Sanchez is arguably the most award-winning barman in Dallas. In January, he was named a semifinalist for the James Beard Awards<\/a> for Outstanding Professional in Cocktail Service for his work at the downtown bar Midnight Rambler.\u00a0<\/p>\n He and his business partner, Ryan Payne, own Black Swan Saloon and Saint Valentine in East Dallas.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cYou see people, law enforcement, in this country with their faces covered,\u201d Sanchez says. \u201cThey\u2019re not wearing any identification other than [patches with the words] ICE, they\u2019re not wearing body cameras, and they\u2019re running ramshod through American cities. I\u2019ve never dealt with this in my adult life. \u2026 If someone comes in, are they an ICE agent or not? How am I supposed to know?\u201d<\/p>\n For Sanchez, making a statement doesn\u2019t involve posting on Instagram. Rather, he talks one-on-one to his employees and customers. He does this partly because he doesn\u2019t like the way social media is flooded with opinions and a mishmash of truth and fiction, and partly because hospitality is a one-on-one business. No employees or customers have asked him about it, he says, but says that \u201cin theory, businesses follow suit with how the owners think.\u201d<\/p>\n He suspects that his patrons are like-minded. He can\u2019t say for certain, but Sanchez makes a point of being on a first-name basis with as many people as possible in his bar on any given night and trains his bar staff to do the same. \u201cThese are very intimate relationships,\u201d he says. \u201cThe good thing about a small business is everybody knows everybody, and those conversations will come up naturally.\u201d<\/p>\n Sanchez\u2019s grandmother, father, eight of his uncles and aunts moved to the continental U.S. from Guam, arriving by boat in Long Beach, California, in 1958. He is bothered by the way ICE is arresting people without looking at their papers, based on their accents or skin color.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIf my dad, who is darker-complected than I, was \u2026 at a 7-Eleven, and walked out where guys might be looking for daily work, how does anyone know, by looking at [any of them], their immigration status? That\u2019s a problem.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Sanchez says his business hasn\u2019t been directly affected, but he is concerned about his employees. He knew Petey Feng<\/a>, a line cook who was detained by ICE in November after going to a routine immigration check-in.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cHe was here one day, and then he was gone,\u201d he says. \u201cPetey was one of the sweetest human beings you could ever want to meet. All he wanted to do was cook, eat and make cool shit.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Feng was a regular at the original Black Swan in Deep Ellum. \u201cBy looking at Petey, did I know he was undocumented? No. He was a human being living in this country,\u201d he says. \u201cDoes the crime fit the punishment? No.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Taco Y Vino<\/p>\n![\"Owners](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Russell-Tibbits-and-Allison-Macalik-Little-Joy-Cafe-Photo-by-Lauren-Drewes-Daniels-1.jpg\")
Owners Russell Tibbits and Allison Macalik of Little Joy Cafe raised money on National Day of Action.<\/p>\n