Musician and outspoken Trump supporter Kid Rock has seen staffing at his Nashville restaurant, Big Ass Honky Tonk Rock N’ Roll Steakhouse, dwindle amid ongoing ICE raids in the city and across the nation.
Restaurateur Steve Smith, who operates multiple popular Nashville bars, has built a profitable restaurant empire that seemingly heavily relies on the labor of undocumented workers. Yet, like his business partner Kid Rock, Smith is a vocal supporter and donor of Donald Trump as the president pushes aggressive deportation policies.
Ahead of rumored ICE raids, managers at all three of Smith’s establishments reportedly instructed employees without legal status to vacate the premises during the Saturday night rush. Many of those workers did not return for the rest of the weekend, fearing detention, which further strained an already short-staffed operation.
“We were already understaffed because of the ICE raids throughout the weekend,” an anonymous employee told the Scene. “Then, around 9:30 p.m. on Saturday, our manager came back and told anyone without legal status to go home. Events at the Ryman, Ascend, the Savannah Bananas’ baseball game all let out, and it was crazy busy. But there was no one in the kitchen to cook the food.”
As ICE raids have intensified, many employees have opted to call out of work rather than risk detention during their commute. Some managers, including those at Smith’s downtown restaurants, have started coordinating transportation for immigrant workers in an effort to keep them safe and operations running.
On May 3, Tennessee state troopers assisted ICE in arresting 196 undocumented individuals, 101 of whom had no criminal record. Fewer than half had any documented criminal history just four had prior involvement in violent crimes.
Originally published on Latin Times
