What to do If ICE Shows Up At Your Dealership
By David Jones, Fisher & Phillips LLP
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udits and raids of workplaces by Immigration and Customs Enforcement are at an all-time high. To avoid liability and ensure that you are complying, you should ensure that you have protocols in place to properly handle any ICE visits or requests.
Immigration enforcement has been a top priority under the Trump Administration. Audits and raids of workplaces by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) are at an all-time high. Although some employers knowingly violate U.S. immigration laws, most of the time employers are unaware they are hiring or employing undocumented immigrants. These employers can be severely impacted by ICE audits and raids if they are not prepared and do not know their rights and obligations when ICE does show up. To avoid liability and ensure that you are complying, you should ensure that you have protocols in place to properly handle any ICE visits or requests.
the public area. The employer may inquire as to what is going on but cannot interfere with ICE’s actions.
Private areas, such as service areas and offices, however, are a different story. Without a judicial warrant, First and foremost, automotive dealICE does not have the right to enter ers should be aware that ICE can private areas or speak to employees enter any public area — for examin those areas. The officers will ple, the showroom or lot — without sometimes have “ICE warrants,” any kind of warrant. If ICE officials which are agency documents enter a public area and encounter regarding the arrest and detention an undocumented immigrant, they can take that individual into custody. of an individual that have not been reviewed by a judge. These ICE also may speak to employees in
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“warrants” carry no legal authority and do not give ICE the right to enter any private work areas. Thus, if confronted with this situation — in the absence of a judicial warrant — you are under no legal obligation to comply with demands of entry into the non-public area of the dealership. Even a judicial warrant may not give ICE the authority to search a business. An arrest warrant for an individual only allows them to arrest that individual. While the
