"ICE is not welcome here": Richmond businesses are pushing back
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A sign posted at Gold Lion Cafe on Hull. The rights listed include allowing agents in public areas but not private spaces without permission or a judicial warrant. Photo: Sabrina Moreno/Axios
A sign is popping up in dozens of Richmond storefronts, declaring "ICE IS NOT WELCOME HERE."
Why it matters: Restaurants and shops that once avoided public stances on immigration enforcement are joining together, even at personal risk, to rally behind the city's immigrant workforce.
The big picture: For some, the rise of immigration raids nationwide — and the silence from businesses — inspired the public show of resistance.
- "Seeing the restaurant industry as a whole just not saying anything? It really f--king pissed me off," Carlos Ordaz-Nuñez, owner of TBT El Gallo and the son of immigrant farmworkers, tells Axios.
- "So many restaurants across this country depend on immigrant hands — depend on brown hands — to process food, to wash dishes, to cook food, to serve people."
So when the Richmond Community Legal Fund began printing bilingual signs that also state a business' rights if ICE agents show up, Ordaz-Nuñez asked for one.
- Then he posted himself putting it up on TBT's Instagram in June, weeks after ICE agents began detaining people at the Chesterfield courthouse.
Zoom in: Around the same time, more businesses began asking the volunteer-run nonprofit for the free sign, says Kristin Reed, a labor organizer and one of the fund's co-founders.
- And as the signs dotted storefronts everywhere from Church Hill and Northside to the Fan and Manchester, other businesses felt safer in getting one, too, Reed adds.
- The fund has distributed over 200 signs since May, and businesses as far as California have requested the graphic's file to make their own, Reed tells Axios.
The other side: While Reed and Ordaz-Nuñez said they've received an outpouring of support regarding the signs, Republican Lt. Gov. nominee John Reid blasted the campaign this month in a post.
- Local business owners "don't get to decide which federal laws are obeyed and enforced," he said.
- A Reddit thread about the sign had over 1,500 comments, many from critics arguing that a sign won't stop federal agents.
What they're saying: Ordaz-Nuñez tells Axios that businesses aren't breaking any laws — and he's been proud to see restaurants speak up.
- Reed says, "People want to keep those workers and those neighbors and those families and those members of their community safe in a moment that's politically pretty scary."
What we're watching: Businesses in surrounding counties have begun to request signs, according to Reed, but the visibility can be harder in places where shops and restaurants are more spread out.