DC Restaurants Lose More Than 130 Workers After HSI Notices

Homeland Security Investigations mailed “notice of suspect documents” letters to multiple D.C. restaurants in mid-February, and at least 131 employees at five restaurants have left or been terminated as a result, according to the Washington Post. Washingtonian reported the letters gave employers 10 business days to prove flagged workers were authorized to work or to fire them, and warned fines could run $716 to $5,724 per worker for a first-time violation.

The staffing shock played out in daily service at one downtown restaurant that tallied losses on Tuesday, Feb. 24 — 11 days after receiving the HSI letter. The co-owner said 29 employees — line cooks, prep cooks, bartenders, servers and managers — messaged that they would no longer work there, and the restaurant later hired 17 replacements, largely through referrals from former staff, according to Newsbreak and the Washington Post. Newsbreak described the business partner chopping vegetables in a basement kitchen while a manager arranged interviews and dinner covers dropped to about 30 guests on a night that would normally see 200.

Other owners reported even larger proportional losses. Newsbreak recorded individual restaurants losing 68 percent, 63 percent, 35 percent and 15 percent of their staffs after HSI contact, but noted those percentages do not account for workers who left after the initial I-9 visits last spring. At least six other establishments received mid-February letters, Newsbreak and the Washington Post reported.

The HSI follow-up action traces back to employment-eligibility audits last May, when federal agents visited more than 100 D.C.-area businesses seeking I-9 forms. Marylandmatters reported DHS agents visited both Pupatella locations on Tuesday, May 6, and DHS spokesman Mike Alvarez confirmed the visits in a May 7 statement. Pupatella vice president Natasha Neely described the moment as “an unnerving time … for the industry as a collective,” according to Marylandmatters.

Advocates, restaurateurs and lawyers say the enforcement has immediate operational consequences and no ready labor pool to replace departing workers. “It’s not like when those workers left that there were U.S. workers lining up to take those jobs,” an immigration lawyer identified as Young told Newsbreak. UNITE HERE Local 25 warned that “the vilification and dehumanization of immigrants and erosion of rights, including due process … is a direct threat to the rights of all working people,” per Marylandmatters. Shawn Townsend, president of the Restaurant Association Metropolitan Washington, called the contacts “once again another plight on the industry at a time when we need as many people working as we possibly can,” according to Washingtonian. WUSA9 quoted a speaker named Rubio saying enforcement is creating “a strain and this really negative … environment around the city that people don’t want to be part of, which will affect them.”

Industry data underscore the scale: FWD.us research cited by WUSA9 finds nearly 36 percent of the D.C. region’s food, beverage and hospitality workers are immigrants, and the American Immigration Council told NRN immigrants make up about 22 percent of U.S. foodservice workers. An NRN survey found 73 percent of restaurants reported at least one direct impact from immigration actions, 16 percent reported employees with work permits detained, 12 percent reported workers with no criminal record deported, and 53 percent said staff had been stopped or questioned while commuting.

Counts of affected restaurants vary by report. Washingtonian said Shawn Townsend had heard from five to 10 restaurants contacted by HSI; Newsbreak and the Washington Post said at least six other establishments received letters in mid-February; Marylandmatters said representatives from four restaurants reported losing employees after the May visits. Marylandmatters also noted that as of its reporting no arrests had been confirmed and no agents had returned to Pupatella.

Owners are scrambling to verify authorizations with immigration attorneys and to recruit replacements as fines, tight deadlines and prior audits converge, according to Washingtonian, Newsbreak, the Washington Post and WUSA9. The combined reporting shows enforcement actions tied to last spring’s audits have already removed more than 130 hospitality workers from D.C. kitchens and could deepen the city’s staffing crisis in the weeks ahead.