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Interestingly, NBC 4 News revealed that some establishments were tipped off ahead of time. Whether Chef Geoff’s had advance warning remains unclear.
Predictably, D.C.’s Democrat leadership did not take the enforcement action well. Mayor Muriel Bowser quickly jumped into defense mode, blasting the operations and accusing ICE of harassment rather than law enforcement.
“I have heard those reports. I’ve been getting them all morning. I am disturbed by them. It appears as though ICE is at restaurants, or even at neighborhoods, and it doesn’t look like they’re targeting criminals, and it does look like they’re disrupting,” Bowser complained.
The local left-wing crowd didn’t hold back either. FOX 5 DC spoke with residents who seemed more outraged about law enforcement doing its job than about illegal immigration itself.
“It’s very high anxiety, anxiety-inducing. I think it’s really terrible right now that ICE is taking people and sending them away to El Salvador and these other countries to what are basically concentration camps,” one D.C. resident, Isa, lamented.
Meanwhile, activists from groups like Migrant Solidarity Mutual used the situation to stoke more outrage. Volunteer Claudia Tristan wailed, “Unfortunately, fear is the goal as these happen whether in D.C. or across the country. But what we’re also seeing is a lot of solidarity within the D.C. community.”
Restaurant industry leaders also rushed to criticize ICE, clearly more concerned about their business flow than about upholding the law. Shawn Townsend, President of the Restaurant Association of Metropolitan Washington, sounded off:
“There was no one detained or arrested that I’ve heard of, but regardless of that fact, disrupting food service during lunch hours while restaurants are open is alarming, and we are concerned about the fear-mongering tactics we believe happened today,” he said.
Townsend continued, painting ICE’s actions as an affront to the city’s hospitality sector: “There is a sense of fear. It’s alarming, it’s concerning, immigrants make up a large amount of workers in our restaurants in the district. I think there could have been a better way to get the information that these ICE agents, from what I’m told, were looking for.”
What’s clear is that President Trump’s immigration crackdown is rattling the elites in liberal enclaves like D.C. — and even the wealthy, Trump-hating media class isn’t immune. As Americans grow increasingly fed up with the chaos fueled by illegal immigration, actions like these show the Trump movement is serious about restoring law and order, no matter whose privileged toes get stepped on.
