DENVER — At Tonantzin Casa de Café, the priority has always been coffee and atole drinks inspired by Latin American and Indigenous preparations, but weeks ago, advising customers about their rights regarding immigration enforcement became a close second.
Signs around the café ask customers to "report suspected ICE activity," while cards near the register list out constitutional rights.
Tonantzin Casa de Café received the information from the Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition, one of several organizations in the state offering webinars and training for business owners on their rights if U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement (ICE) agents ever show up at their door.
"We were getting ready for May Day, which is a big international workers' day, and wanted to think about how could we empower and support local businesses to also stand up for their workers and also stand up for immigrant rights in this moment?" said Raquel Lane-Arellano with Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition. "We partnered with SEIU, which is a labor union, and came up with this idea about training businesses to train their employees and their staff about what their rights are as a business in terms of how can they exercise their constitutional rights to make sure that ICE is following the law and and that they're pushing them to follow constitutional law when they come into their premise by asking them to show a warrant signed by a judge before they can enter private spaces within the business."
Lane-Arellano said the coalition has trained a handful of business owners so far.
"The biggest thing is just making sure that people understand what their constitutional rights are and what is truly required for ICE to be able to enter non-public parts of your home or your business," Lane-Arellano said. "They're very similar, and what it comes down to is ICE needs to have a judicial warrant signed by a judge to enter non-public areas so that they can actually meet the requirement of searching your home, your business, and oftentimes they actually don't do that homework."
"It's important that people, everyday people, understand that ICE can't enter if they don't have a judicial warrant, unless you invite them in," Lane-Arellano added.
Already this year, the Colorado Restaurant Association has done something similar. In February, it shared information and resources from its legal partner, Fisher Phillips.
A spokesperson for the Colorado Restaurant Association provided the following statement.
We’ve recently heard about increased ICE activity in local restaurants and are focusing on educating our members about how to prepare if ICE comes to their business on a raid or for an audit. It’s important restaurant operators know the best practices for conducting internal I-9 audits, their rights when ICE is on site, and how to prepare their teams, too. We held a webinar for restaurants on this topic in February and continue to share information and resources from our legal partners at Fisher Phillips so that restaurant workers and operators are ready.
In a statement to our partners at the Denver Post, an ICE spokesperson said there have been “worksite enforcement operations in and around the Denver area,” but the agency didn't specify if any of those operations happened at restaurants.
Still, for Lane-Arellano and those she works with, the purpose behind this training is clear.
"This is the kind of thing that it's really valuable, but it doesn't help you if you don't know it. All these protections are incredible, and if you don't know what your constitutional rights are, then you can't use them," she said.
