Chef Sean Sherman knows all too well the impact of the infiltration of the Twin Cities by federal immigration agents.

One of his staff members was detained this week outside Owamni, his Minneapolis restaurant that focuses on pre-colonization Native cuisine.

“One of our employees was driving two other employees,” he said. “And as soon as she pulled in, they were right behind her, and they grabbed one of our guys. They had guns pulled out and everything.”

The employee, who Sherman said is from Ecuador and here legally, was in Texas by the next morning. Sherman said agents told the employee and other witnesses that the arrested man looked like someone they were looking for.

“But they’re just looking for anybody who’s black or brown, so that could be anybody. You shouldn’t have to go to work just trying to make healthy food for people and be worried about if you’re going to have a gun in your face,” Sherman said.

Sherman has had enough of the restaurant community being targeted, so he’s using his platform to call for action that he says will help the food industry.

The chef, restaurateur, cookbook author and activist has written what he says is a bipartisan letter to members of Congress , demanding “accountability, safety and human rights to support the American food system.”

The letter, which has been signed by more than 1,000 chefs, business owners and other industry leaders, includes a list of demands that they think should be met before any further funding for the Department of Homeland Security is approved. The House has passed the DHS appropriations bill, but the Senate needs to vote on the measure before Jan. 30 to avoid a government shutdown.

The letter includes the following statement:

“The American food industry depends on safety, trust, and dignity. When workers fear being targeted, racially profiled, surveilled, detained, or killed by the federal government, the entire system suffers. No industry built on human labor can function under terror. Recent federal enforcement actions have resulted in the deaths of our neighbors and U.S. citizens and have created widespread fear throughout our communities. This is destabilizing workplaces across the country, risking cascading economic damage – including labor shortages, restaurant and farm closures, interrupted supply chains, and rising food costs nationwide.

The demands from the community, as outlined in the letter, are as follows:

Immediate withdrawal of ICE and CBP operations from Minneapolis-St. Paul and other cities experiencing violent enforcement actions.
Full, independent investigations into all civilian deaths involving federal agents.
An absolute end to the detention and deportation of U.S. citizens.
Mandatory visible identification for all federal agents and a prohibition on the use of masks during enforcement actions.
An end to mass arrest quotas, arrest incentives, and warrantless arrests.
Codification of a national use-of-force standard that is enforceable by courts.
An end to qualified immunity protections for ICE agents.
An end to racial profiling in all federal enforcement operations.
An end to warrantless surveillance systems used by ICE, including the weaponization of personal phones and location data to track individuals and communities.
An end to the detention of individuals with no criminal background.

Sherman said lawmakers on both sides of the aisle should be concerned about what happens if the U.S. food industry breaks down.

“Right now, we’re on a very unsustainable path, because I think that we’re all very much aware that historically, black and brown and diverse people have been a massive part of our food systems,” Sherman said. “And I feel like we’re going to start to see the strains of this aggression rather quickly because restaurants are going to start closing. We’re feeling like our business is slipping away so quickly.”

To that end, Caroline To, co-owner of Howard’s Bar in Stillwater, published on social media this weekend a letter she wrote to Sen. Amy Klobuchar.

To, a singer whose stage name is Your Smith, detailed the impact that ICE raids have had on her restaurant and others in the community.

“ICE has been doing sweeps of Stillwater restaurants, pulling owners into back rooms to interrogate them about their staff, and kidnapping our hardest-working employees from outside their homes,” she wrote. “I’m sure I do not need to tell you that owning a restaurant or business in a small town comes with its labor shortage issues already, but now our community is suffering, blindsided, and bewildered by the abductions of our employees who have no criminal record and have only served our community and businesses in commendable ways.”

To goes on to say that she’s eight months pregnant, and her husband, chef Adam To, is now forced to spend 14 hours a day at the restaurant just to keep it open.

She closes by saying: “I write to you because we are not a unique story. We represent the restaurant industry in Minneapolis. An industry that has been highlighted time and time again in our state for its excellence and legacy. It is folding in. We have no support. And no one is talking about it.”

And it’s not just restaurants that are feeling the pain. The entire food system is being upended, Sherman said.

“Meat-processing plants, they’re targeting those businesses too. And farm laborers. You have these massive corporations in Minnesota that rely on a lot of this (immigrant) labor,” he said. “The whole food system is going to be, is already being, hit. And disrupting the entire food system is going to disrupt the entire economy.”

Sherman said the people who are concerned about enforcing immigration laws — and therefore support ICE actions — aren’t seeing the reality of the situation.

“This isn’t about lawlessness and this isn’t about immigration, because the ones being lawless are these undertrained, heavy, heavily militarized agents. And they should not be on the streets carrying those weapons and dealing with public, obviously, because they aren’t trained for this situation. They aren’t trained on how to de-escalate, and people are losing their lives, literally, because of it.”

Related Articles

Gen Z hates diet sodas, but loves them with ‘Zero Sugar’ branding

The secret to perfect tortiglioni with peppers and eggplant from a 1929 Italian cookbook

Gretchen’s table: Warm winter’s chill with a hot bowl of this tangy and traditional Mexican stew

The most exciting restaurants opening across the US

Quick Fix: Beef Tenderloin with Cranberry Mustard Sauce and Green Beans with Rice