In a rather ironic twist of fate, Norah O’Donnell, a prominent CBS anchor known for her vocal opposition to former President Trump, found herself in a precarious situation on Tuesday. The backdrop for this drama? The Trump administration’s ongoing crackdown on unauthorized immigration.
According to reports from FOX 5 DC, ICE agents made an unannounced visit to Chef Geoff’s Restaurant, a well-known D.C. eatery owned by O’Donnell’s husband, Geoff Tracy. The agents arrived around 10:30 AM, demanding to see the employees’ I-9 forms, igniting a wave of panic among the staff.
The agents’ stay lasted approximately 90 minutes, but remarkably, they departed without detaining anyone. However, Chef Geoff’s was not an isolated case; the New York Post revealed that ICE also targeted at least eight other restaurants in the capital, including Officina, Mi Vida, Jaleo, Santa Rosa Taqueria, Pupatella, Call Your Mother, Clyde’s, and Millie’s.
In a twist of bureaucratic irony, NBC 4 News reported that some establishments were given a heads-up about the raids, although it remains unclear if Chef Geoff’s was among them.
D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser expressed her outrage upon learning about the operations carried out by the Trump administration:
“I have heard those reports. I’ve been getting them all morning. I am disturbed by them. It appears as though ICE is at restaurants, or even at neighborhoods, and it doesn’t look like they’re targeting criminals, and it does look like they’re disrupting,” Bowser stated, emphasizing the chaos caused by the raids.
Residents of D.C. echoed the mayor’s sentiments when interviewed by FOX 5 DC. One local, Isa, lamented, “It’s very high anxiety, anxiety-inducing. I think it’s really terrible right now that ICE is taking people and sending them away to El Salvador and these other countries to what are basically concentration camps.”
Claudia Tristan, a volunteer with Migrant Solidarity Mutual, added, “Unfortunately, fear is the goal as these happen whether in D.C. or across the country. But what we’re also seeing is a lot of solidarity within the D.C. community.”
Shawn Townsend, President of the Restaurant Association of Metropolitan Washington, voiced concerns over the operations, saying, “There was no one detained or arrested that I’ve heard of, but regardless of that fact, disrupting food service during lunch hours while restaurants are open is alarming. We are concerned about the fear-mongering tactics we believe occurred today.”
He further noted, “There is a sense of fear. It’s alarming, it’s concerning; immigrants make up a large number of workers in our restaurants in the district. I think there could have been a better way to gather the information that these ICE agents, from what I’m told, were looking for.”
