Unions Are Training Hotel Workers to Face Down Immigration Raids

Hotel workers in cities such as Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York have been gathering for training sessions recently on how to handle visits from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The sessions, organized by the labor union Unite Here!, teach workers how to effectively stonewall ICE agents, emphasizing employees’ right to refuse to answer questions or show identification.

Organizers don dark sunglasses or jackets and role-play as ICE agents, with a “good cop” entreating the volunteers with lines such as “You look like a good person,” and a bad cop screaming threats at them. “I need you guys to be just absolute assholes,” organizer Hugo Soto, a former hotel worker who helped develop the training program, tells colleagues when preparing them to portray agents. “We need to train ourselves to be able to beat ICE.”