From family-run cafes to retail giants, U.S. businesses are increasingly caught between public pressure to respond to immigration enforcement and becoming the sites of federal arrests themselves. The pressure on businesses intensified on Sunday in Minneapolis after federal agents shot and killed a man; more than 60 Minnesota CEOs—including Target, Best Buy, and UnitedHealth—signed a letter calling for de-escalation of tensions. The letter, however, stopped short of directly naming immigration enforcement or the arrests already occurring at businesses.
The enforcement surge is creating a legal and public-relations crisis for businesses: they must navigate what ICE can legally do at their locations, manage public anger over their compliance, and brace for operations that immigration lawyers say may violate constitutional protections.
What ICE Can Do
Immigration and Customs Enforcement can enter public areas of a business without a warrant, including restaurant dining sections, open parking lots, office lobbies, and shopping aisles, according to Jessie Hahn, senior counsel for labor and employment policy at the National Immigration Law Center. “The general public can go into a store for purposes of shopping, right? And so can law enforcement agents—without a warrant,” Hahn said.
But to enter areas with a reasonable expectation of privacy—like a back office or a closed-off kitchen—ICE is supposed to have a judicial warrant signed by a judge. That requirement has become more complicated following an internal memo obtained by the Associated Press in which ICE leadership stated administrative warrants were sufficient for federal officers to forcibly enter people’s homes if there is a final order of removal.
Hahn and other immigration rights lawyers say this upends years of precedent for federal agents’ authority in private spaces and violates what they describe as bedrock principles of the U.S. Constitution. The easiest way for ICE to enter private spaces in businesses without a warrant, though, is through consent from an employer—which could be as simple as letting an agent into certain parts of the property.
The Rise of I-9 Audits
Enforcement increasingly takes the form of I-9 audits, which verify employees’ authorization to work. Since the start of Trump’s second term, attorneys have pointed to an uptick in ICE physically showing up at businesses to initiate audits, marking a shift from prior enforcement when audits more often began through mailed notices.
David Jones, a regional managing partner at labor and employment law firm Fisher Phillips in Memphis, said immigration agents are approaching these audits with the same aggressive tactics as recent raids. “ICE is still showing up in their full tactical gear without identifying themselves necessarily, just to do things like serve a notice of inspection,” Jones said.
Vanessa Matsis-McCready, associate general counsel and vice president of HR at Engage PEO, said she has seen a nationwide uptick in interest for I-9 self-audits across sectors and additional emergency preparation.
What Businesses Are Experiencing
Widely-circulated videos from earlier this month showed federal agents detaining two Target employees in Minnesota. Across the country, ICE has rounded up day laborers in Home Depot parking lots and delivery workers on the street. Last year, federal agents detained 475 people during a raid at a Hyundai plant in Georgia.
When ICE shows up without a warrant, businesses can ask agents to leave or potentially refuse service based on company policy—perhaps citing safety concerns or disruptions. But there is no guarantee immigration officials will comply, especially in public spaces. “That’s not what we’re seeing here in Minnesota. What we’re seeing is they still conduct the activity,” said John Medeiros, who leads corporate immigration practice at Minneapolis-based law firm Nilan Johnson Lewis.
Because of this, many businesses have shifted focus from getting ICE off their property to preparing for violations of consent and other legal requirements. In Minneapolis, Chicago, Los Angeles, and other cities seeing enforcement surges, some businesses have put up signs to label private spaces and established protocols for what to do when ICE arrives.
Response and Consequences
Target’s incoming chief executive, Michael Fiddelke, sent a video message to the company’s over 400,000 workers Monday calling recent violence “incredibly painful,” without directly mentioning immigration enforcement. He said Target was doing “everything we can to manage what’s in our control.” Fiddelke also signed the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce letter calling for broader de-escalation, which received support from the Business Roundtable, a lobbying group of CEOs from more than 200 companies.
Target remains among companies that organizers with “ICE Out of Minnesota” have asked to take stronger public stances. Others include Home Depot, whose parking lots have become a known site of ICE operations, and Hilton, which protesters said was among brands of Twin City-area hotels that have housed federal agents. Home Depot and Hilton did not respond to requests for comment on the activists’ calls.
Worker groups have been more outspoken. Ted Pappageorge, secretary-treasurer for a chapter of the Culinary Union in Las Vegas, said members were shocked by a “widening pattern of unlawful ICE behavior” and recognize that “anti-immigrant policies hurt tourism, business, and their families.” The United Auto Workers expressed solidarity with Minneapolis residents “fighting back against the federal government’s abuses and attacks on the working class.”
Jessie Hahn of the National Immigration Law Center noted that some businesses are communicating through industry associations to avoid direct exposure to possible retaliation. But she stressed the importance of speaking publicly about the impacts. “We know that the raids are contributing to things like labor shortages and reduced foot traffic,” Hahn said. “And fears to push back on this abuse of power from Trump could ultimately land us in a very different looking economy.”