Oakland Latino Merchants Learn Rights as ICE Targets Worksites

For months, Ledy Ordoñez worried about what she would do if immigration officers arrived at her store in the heart of Oakland’s premier Latino neighborhood.

Like other local business owners with a largely immigrant clientele, she felt a responsibility to her customers but was also hampered by unanswered questions. Must she allow Immigration and Customs Enforcement into her business? Could neighboring restaurants close their doors to agents? Did customers have to answer questions if stopped?

“Me and other merchants here need to get informed, so that we know how to act if ICE comes,” Ordoñez said in Spanish after helping a mother and daughter select braided bracelets from a glass display at her shop, Ecuador Imports. “We have to support our people.”

As immigration authorities increasingly target worksites for arrests, hundreds of managers and business owners like Ordoñez have flocked to “Know Your Rights” training events in the Bay Area specifically tailored to the workplace, according to legal aid groups and worker advocates.

Employers in California must navigate additional responsibilities under state labor laws when it comes to immigration worksite inspections or raids.

“Employers would be breaking California law if they voluntarily allow ICE to access employee records or private areas,” said Marisa Almor, a trainer with the nonprofit East Bay Sanctuary Covenant, referring to a state law known as the Immigrant Worker Protection Act. “So we are informing employers of what their rights are and what they should also not do.”

Several merchants in the Fruitvale neighborhood said the more aggressive immigration crackdown they’ve watched unfold in Southern California gave them a sense of urgency to attend a recent training at Taqueria La Gran Chiquita, organized by a local business association.

Many attendees said they worry about the use of ethnic profiling to arrest noncriminal workers from warehouses, Home Depot parking lots and bus stops.

“What we see happening in LA is going to come up here. We have to get organized,” said Jose Antonio Dorado, who owns a bookkeeping and tax services business. “It’s only a matter of time.”

On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court temporarily allowed the Trump administration to continue using broad factors such as apparent ethnicity, language and occupation to conduct ICE raids in the LA area.

Critics said the justices’ 6–3 decision will likely embolden federal authorities to use similar tactics in other cities and could lead to Latino U.S. citizens being erroneously targeted because of the color of their skin, Spanish language, or type of work at car washes or as day laborers.

At La Gran Chiquita, stacks of flyers and handouts, including an employer preparedness checklist, greeted local merchants as they walked in.

Tables and chairs were moved aside to make way for couches, a projector and a white hanging sheet that functioned as a screen. At least one confused customer expecting tacos backed away after realizing the restaurant had been transformed into a classroom.

Almor, who taught the training, advised merchants to plan ahead on how to respond if ICE visited their businesses. The Constitution guarantees that all people on U.S. soil — regardless of their immigration status — have the right to remain silent and request a lawyer if detained, she said.

“You must establish a response protocol,” Almor said as attendees took photos of presentation slides and scribbled notes. “Talk with your employees in advance and designate who is authorized to make decisions, who should interact with law enforcement in the name of the business and coworkers and who can document the interaction at a safe distance.”

Almor said brick-and-mortar business owners — especially in predominantly Latino areas — should identify which areas of their stores or offices are considered public versus private.

The distinction is important because California employers don’t have to allow ICE into private spaces unless they present a valid judicial warrant, she said.

“It’s rare for immigration agents to carry a judicial warrant,” Almor said, pointing out the differences between that document and the administrative orders more commonly carried by immigration officers.

Erick Olivares, who hosted the training at his taqueria, said learning about his legal rights as a business owner made him feel more confident. He planned to meet with employees at his two restaurants in the Fruitvale and Richmond, as well as fellow merchants, to ensure they know their rights.

“With all this information, I got more ideas about the things that I can do. First of all, for me is to prepare my business,” said Olivares, 44.

The naturalized U.S. citizen, who first arrived in the Fruitvale as an undocumented teen, said his life experience motivates him to protect his community from any immigration-related abuses. Olivares said he doesn’t want to interfere with ICE’s work but will stand up for his mostly Latino employees and customers if needed.

“Now that I have the opportunity to protect my people, that’s what I want to do,” he said. “I want to help my community. I want to protect the businesses because these things that the federal government is doing to us; we cannot just let it be. We need to fight back.”

Dorado, who co-leads the Comunidad y Comerciantes de Fruitvale business association with Olivares, said he wants members to become trainers themselves and involve other merchants. The 77-year-old lifelong Fruitvale resident said that, as unsettling as recent immigration sweeps in other regions may be, he sees an opportunity in the Bay Area for employers to unite.

“We can talk to them about the importance of our coming together, and it’s not just the education,” said Dorado, a former police commissioner. “It’s also the multiplying force of our coming together as merchants and Latino merchants, especially here in the Fruitvale.”