Apart from McDonald’s, Chick-fil-A is another fast-food chain that has recently been caught up in the political maelstrom surrounding ICE and Minnesota. One particular Chick-fil-A branch in the state is now under fire after its manager called Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on an employee. It’s not clear what happened to the employee or whether they were an illegal immigrant, but the gesture from management has earned the ire of Minnesotans.
The incident occurred in Eden Prairie, Minnesota, around mid-January, and a viral video even alluded to how the Chick-fil-A branch in question appears deserted now or lacks customers. In the video, the Chick-fil-A branch appears empty even though it was still open. Apparently, the manager called ICE on one of the employees, and word quickly spread throughout the area, prompting people to boycott the branch and even leave negative reviews.
In one of the bad reviews, an angry Minnesotan even called the manager someone who “Betrayed her own employees” while another ranted against the said manager, “Saw where you turned employees over to thugs. Shame on you!!!!!!” It’s worth noting that not all Chick-fil-A branches share the same policy, and it appears it varies per branch, depending on the manager or owner.
In any case, the damage has been done to the Eden Prairie Chick-fil-A branch, with some Minnesotans even branding the particular Chick-fil-A a xenophobic establishment. “Why is Patrica calling ice on workers if you guys don’t hire undocumented workers 🤔 racist and homophobic double struggle,” according to another review. Meanwhile, other places in Minnesota, such as Minneapolis, are also resisting ICE’s presence.
Critics are also questioning the hiring process in the Chick-fil-A branch
So far, it appears Chick-fil-A hasn’t released a statement regarding the incident just yet, unlike McDonald’s, which was quick to curb the efforts of one particular branch that denied access to ICE agents. Some commenters on TikTok, however, were wondering exactly how the alleged illegal immigrants managed to find work in Chick-fil-A, often suspecting that the management knew their status but still hired them anyway, only to turn them over to ICE.
“How do you call ICE on someone you hired?” questions one critic, while another further asks, “They hired them. Didn’t they get an I-9 form?” Indeed, many fast food places in the US, particularly those as big as Chick-fil-A, require an I-9 form for employment, which verifies the identity and eligibility of potential employees in the US. Hence, more questions were raised regarding how exactly ICE was able to detain the Chick-fil-A workers when they were supposedly legal based on the hiring process.
Some troubling testimonies point to how the ICE agents were donning plain clothes and feigning emergencies to lure out people they plan to catch. Certain witnesses have thus recalled that the same tactic was employed in the Eden Prairie Chick-fil-A branch, “Eden Prairie Chik-Fil-A – 2 female agents went in and said they hit a car and showed a photo of the car “they hit” and said they wanted to pay for the damage. When the car owners went out, they were arrested and taken away.”
