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On Jan. 22, a manager at White Rhino Coffee publicly quit her job after objecting to the company’s position on serving ICE agents and offering discounts..
Margot Stacy resigned from the Dallas-Fort Worth-based specialty coffee chain after alleging that White Rhino required staff to serve U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents and to give them a first-responder discount.
Stacy managed a White Rhino location that has a diverse staff and customer base, she told Lauren Drewes Daniels of the Dallas Observer. Before resigning, she had been increasingly worried by the presence of ICE agents in her cafe over the previous few weeks, her anxiety increasing after the murder of Renée Good in Minneapolis on Jan. 7. Stacy told the Observer she asked whether her store could refuse to serve ICE, and was told no because “our stance is to stay apolitical.”
The topic came up again during a management call. According to a worker who wished to remain anonymous, the company reaffirmed its stance on serving ICE agents and offering them a discount. White Rhino provides active-duty police, firefighters, and EMTs a first-responder discount: free drip coffee and 50% off everything else.
After additional follow-up meetings with her district manager, Stacy quit. “I cannot support a company with whom my values do not align,” she wrote on Instagram. “I will not have my spiritual and moral constitution compromised by these positions. I love all our differences, but this is where I must draw the line.” Others at the store also resigned due to the company’s stance on ICE agents, she claimed.
In an emailed statement to the Observer, White Rhino said it “does not offer the first responder discount to ICE agents,” and that the participants on the management call didn’t have authority to implement policies.
As ICE operations spread around the country, coffee businesses and their workers are increasingly feeling the effects. ICE agents have conducted raids on coffee farms in Hawaii, and cafe workers and at least one coffee shop owner has been detained.
In Minnesota, where much of the current ICE presence is currently focused, brands like Starbucks and Caribou Coffee have come under fire in recent weeks. Both companies, according to employees, have policies that require staff to serve ICE agents even if they feel unsafe. Independent shops, many of which are refusing to serve ICE, have emerged as donation drop-off and community organizing hubs.
Read the full story of the ICE policy disagreement from the Dallas Observer here and learn what to do if ICE comes to your coffee shop here.
Photo by Sabri Tuzcu on Unsplash
