As the federal immigration enforcement surge enters its third month in Minnesota, workers across industries are navigating an increasingly complex relationship with their employers.
While many small businesses are pushing back against warrantless immigration enforcement or providing additional flexibility to their staff, resulting in shuttered, struggling businesses, others face scrutiny for their perceived silence and compliance with federal agents.
Unions and workers’ rights groups say workers afraid to go into workplaces find it difficult to assert their rights there. In some cases, the advocacy groups are stepping in to address what they see as employers breaching trust with vulnerable workers.
Since mid-November, when federal agents arrested 14 employees on the site of a St. Paul paper manufacturer, Bro-Tex, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Border Patrol and other agencies have raided construction sites, big-box retailers and restaurants. The Department of Homeland Security says it has arrested 10,000 people during Operation Metro Surge, though that number has been disputed.
Workers targeted at job sites
Christa Sarrack, president of Unite Here Local 17, a Minneapolis union representing hospitality workers at hotels, restaurants, stadiums and Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport (MSP), says its members are uneasy going into work regardless of their immigration status.
“ICE agents that are here have proven that, regardless of what [workers’] statuses are, they will take them and detain them,” Sarrack said.
In recent weeks, federal agents have arrested at least 15 airport workers at MSP. Those employees, including workers at airport restaurants and lounges, all were extensively vetted by the Transportation and Security Agency before receiving airport badges, with background checks going back 10 years.
“We have workers at the airport who obviously are legal to be in the country, otherwise they wouldn’t be working at the airport,” Sarrack said.
Hotel workers, too, are fearful, especially when ICE agents are staying at their workplaces.
“We’ve heard reports from hotels that ICE agents are leaving loaded weapons in the rooms and that workers are uncomfortable cleaning the rooms,” Sarrack said.
In an email to Sahan Journal, the Labor Council for Latin American Advancement, an advocacy group for Latino workers and union members, said workers are being left alone while facing persecution from immigration enforcement: “During emergencies — illness, family hardship, immigration issues or economic instability — companies often abandon workers, offering minimal flexibility or support despite relying on their labor to function,” the council said.
Unions, workers’ rights and activist groups have accused companies with major operations in Minnesota, including those headquartered here, of turning a blind eye to immigration enforcement on company grounds.
Jac Kovarik, communications coordinator for Centro De Trabajadores Unidos En La Lucha, a Minneapolis worker-led advocacy group with a focus on construction trades, said the organization has been keeping track of immigration raids at construction sites.
Just this year, ICE raided and harassed workers three times at a Shakopee worksite of D.R. Horton, which calls itself America’s largest homebuilder. According to Kovarik, the company has not sufficiently protected its employees.
“There’s an ongoing lawsuit in Alabama where a U.S. citizen was detained not once, but twice on a D.R. Horton site. The same person — it happened twice,” Kovarik said.
On Jan. 21, members of Centro De Trabajadores Unidos visited the regional office of D.R. Horton to urge the developer to keep ICE agents away from construction sites unless they obtain a judicial warrant.
“We want D.R. Horton to publicly announce that they will not allow ICE on their worksites without a valid judicial warrant, because it is private property, and the developer has the power to say that,” Kovarik said.
After the advocacy group waited in the lobby of the Lakeville office for 10 minutes, a D.R. Horton official told them that they needed to leave the private property.
D.R. Horton did not respond to Sahan Journal’s request for comment.
Recourse for workers
Employment attorney Katherine Rollins says Minnesota workers fearing workplace raids have two standard protections available to them.
Employees facing serious mental distress because of increased federal enforcement can use Earned Sick and Safe Time for up to three days without questions asked by an employer.
“The employee doesn’t need to provide any kind of note from a health care provider in order to utilize that leave,” Rollins said. “If the employee needs to use more than three days of leave in a row, the employer can ask for a doctor’s note, but the employee can then say, ‘I’m not able to go to a doctor because of expense or inability to get to the doctor.’”
The other option, according to Rollins, is to use Minnesota Paid Family Leave. This provides more time off; however, it is more restrictive as it requires a health care provider’s certification.
“For your own serious medical condition, including some kind of mental health condition, you get 12 weeks,” Rollins said. “For any kind of serious mental condition of a family member that the employee has to care for, you get 12 weeks.”
If an employee needs to attend to both their own mental health condition and the mental health condition of a family member, the leave is limited to 20 weeks per year.
Under federal law, workers also have the ability to advocate for one another through what the National Labor Relations Act calls “concerted activity.”
“It could be a single employee who sends an email and says, ‘I understand the employer is allowing ICE or immigration authorities to stage on our lot, and I feel that this makes it unsafe for other coworkers,’” Rollins said.
However, because the act is enforced by the Trump-appointed National Labor Relations Board, it is unclear whether these protections would be enforced, she added.
‘Between a rock and a hard place’
Sarrack acknowledges that employers are in a difficult position, referring to retaliation faced by businesses perceived to be interfering with federal enforcement.
Last week, DHS subpoenaed Hennepin County Health and Medical Center (HCMC) to inspect employment records after health care workers from the hospital packed a Hennepin County Board meeting to protest the presence of ICE at the hospital.
In a lawsuit filed this month by Minnesota and the Twin Cities calling for a halt to federal operations, the plaintiffs cited extensive economic devastation to local employers, including a near 80% drop in sales for some businesses.
“I think that they’re kind of stuck between a rock and a hard place as well on this, because they’re getting a huge pushback from the administration,” Sarrack said.
She said Unite Here 17 is working with employers to provide additional support and flexibility to workers.
“The employers are giving some leniency on attendance policies because they kind of have to,” Sarrack said. “Otherwise, they would be losing much of their workforce.”
Jessica Roe, a Minneapolis employment lawyer who represents a range of companies, including those with a national footprint, is conducting webinars to help employers create action plans to navigate increased ICE enforcement in the workplace.
“I would say every single one of my employers cares about their employees. All of them,” she said. “They’re just trying to figure out a way to manage yet another storm in this city.”
After Saturday’s fatal shooting of 37-year-old ICU nurse Alex Pretti, the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce released a letter on behalf of more than 60 CEOs of Minnesota companies — including Target, Allina Health and General Mills — calling for a de-escalation of tensions among state, local and federal officials.
“For the past several weeks, representatives of Minnesota’s business community have been working every day behind the scenes with federal, state and local officials to advance real solutions,” the statement read. “These efforts have included close communication with the Governor, the White House, the Vice President and local mayors.”
Kovarik believes that the federal siege of Minnesota will have lasting consequences for worker protections.
“Even though a law exists, if the worker doesn’t feel like they won’t be able to speak out without facing retaliation, the law is pointless,” Kovarik said.
“If [workers] start to lose trust in government officials, that’s gonna be a long journey of trying to regain that trust.”
