Nashville Eating places Navigate the ICE Age | Options

Issues are fairly good for Edgar Victoria. The lauded chef, recognized for his Mexico Metropolis-style road meals, opened a brick-and-mortar location of Alebrije in East Nashville in January after a number of years of pop-ups round city (on the Drift Resort, Bar Sovereign, NVR NVR, Bastion and Geodis Park, to call a couple of). 

The brand new restaurant, on the second flooring of a multi-use constructing at Gallatin Pike and Eastland Avenue, doesn’t have distinguished outside signage. Even Victoria jokes that it type of seems closed from the surface. That’s, till you discover a line out the door, with folks ready to sit down in one of many bright-yellow chairs and order Victoria’s tacos, that are served on tortillas made in home with nixtamal masa.

Victoria immigrated to the U.S. when he was 10 years outdated. He constructed Alebrije on his childhood experiences; even the restaurant identify comes from a Mexican folks determine. Victoria’s heritage, recipes and methods are wholly a part of the meals he serves in Nashville. As he’s making an attempt to not stress out about these aforementioned strains, he notes that in Mexico Metropolis, a lot of one of the best meals is eaten on the road. 

“Individuals simply stand on the nook and eat, so once I noticed a line of 30 folks, I believed, ‘That is turning into Mexico,’” he says, laughing. The truth is, he was interviewed for this text on the cellphone from Mexico Metropolis, the place he was visiting household and discovering inspiration for some new dishes he’s bringing again to Alebrije. (Sizzling tip: Dishes cooked over an open fireplace are coming quickly.)

That’s a part of the explanation persons are keen to attend for a desk at Alebrije. Victoria is bringing particular meals to the town and infusing it along with his personal expertise — the immigrant expertise.

However some immigrants and first- and second-generation restaurant homeowners in Nashville are involved about sharing their private tales given the present backlash in opposition to immigrants. They’re fearful about harassment and the insurance policies of the second Trump administration, together with elevated deportations and initiatives aiming to eradicate birthright citizenship and prohibit entry to high school for undocumented youngsters. Being unable to completely inform your story and promote your small business handcuffs small companies that already face further challenges.

Daniel Yarzagaray is a second-generation American, and he sees the worry his entrepreneurial friends are experiencing. He grew up in Nashville and realized about his Colombian heritage from his grandparents, who have been from Cartagena. Yarzagaray realized to talk Spanish earlier than he realized to talk English. He opened his Colombian meals truck Chivanada in 2016, desirous to share scrumptious empanadas with the Nashville neighborhood. The vehicles are on an everyday schedule round city, and Yarzagaray’s group educates folks about Colombian meals and tradition whereas serving the gluten-free, handmade pockets of goodness. 

In 2018, Yarzagaray began taking part in round with a pizza oven, ultimately launching Pizza Assurda, a Neapolitan pizza truck. (“Assurda” means “absurd” in Italian and displays his penchant for nontraditional pies.) Like Victoria, he’s increasing his worldwide meals choices regardless of the political local weather. He sees a few of his fellow enterprise homeowners being reluctant to put up on social media and in any other case share their tales, which is essential to a small enterprise’s success. Some are specializing in Spanish-language moderately than English-language press, he says.

Immigrant-owned and immigrant-run eating places and meals vehicles are a major a part of Nashville’s culinary scene. Based on a 2023 American Immigration Council report, immigrants make up 6.1 p.c of Tennessee’s inhabitants (greater than 430,000 within the state). Of these, 30,000 immigrants are entrepreneurs — and of these enterprise homeowners, a reported 11,300 are undocumented immigrants.

“In different phrases,” says Julio Colby, employee rights legal professional and Skadden Fellow on the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition, “immigrants make up a disproportionate share of entrepreneurs within the state, founding enterprise at greater charges than the state inhabitants total.”

A 2019 report discovered that within the Nashville metropolitan space, immigrants have been 29.8 p.c extra prone to be entrepreneurs than U.S.-born residents. Martha Silva, co-executive director for Conexión Américas, says 1 out of each 5 new entrepreneurs within the nation is Latino, and the roles they create are invaluable to the nation. 

Hospitality and meals service are a few of the prime industries for immigrant entrepreneurs. Since 2013, greater than 100 entrepreneurs have labored with Conexión Américas’ Mesa Komal culinary incubator to launch and construct their meals companies. About 50 p.c of these companies are owned by immigrants, Silva says.

Silva says there’s a common feeling of uncertainty amongst Mesa Komal purchasers. Whereas solely a portion of that pertains to deportation crackdowns, uncertainty shouldn’t be good for the underside line. Small meals companies are scuffling with greater ingredient prices (and never simply eggs), and margins have been already slim. Clients could also be chopping again on eating out because of their considerations about disposable revenue. If the workforce is anxious about deportations, it may be tougher to rent. Additionally, present staff could also be involved about leaving their houses and will not come to work.

In February, an immigration raid by plainclothes federal brokers of a taco truck in Memphis made nationwide headlines. There haven’t been comparable reported incidents in Nashville but, though most individuals interviewed for this text suppose it may occur. In 2018, practically 100 folks — many Latinos — who labored at a Bean Station meat-processing facility in East Tennessee have been detained throughout a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raid. In 2023, the federal government paid greater than $1 million to settle allegations of civil rights violations associated to that raid.

Based on a current article by the Nashville Banner, ICE made 117 immigration detainer requests in Nashville between Jan. 20 (Inauguration Day) and March 13, 2025.

Many immigrant-owned eating places make use of relations, which means their workforce is made up largely of immigrants. Restaurant homeowners interviewed for this text estimated that as a lot as 95 p.c of their kitchen workforce is immigrants. Even when these people are residents or everlasting authorized residents (which means they’ve a inexperienced card), they could be involved about their relations who’ve completely different statuses. And, says TIRRC’s Colby, within the present local weather, it’s considerably irrelevant, as immigrants are afraid of being swept up in a raid. Tales are swirling nationally about residents and everlasting authorized residents being detained with out brokers checking their standing.

Whereas nobody is immune from these considerations, white European immigrants inform the Scene they know they’ve privilege that immigrants of coloration don’t. They see more and more brazen anti-immigrant attitudes amongst some prospects, significantly towards staff of coloration. They report listening to folks say they received’t eat at Mexican eating places anymore and being belligerent to employees they understand to be immigrants. A few of these immigrant entrepreneurs — in addition to first- and second-generation entrepreneurs, together with Yarzagaray — really feel they will communicate out on behalf of those that don’t really feel protected. 

“There’s a common worry proper now,” says Yarzagaray. “We’re making an attempt to do one thing about it, serving to with entrepreneurial coaching and giving money and time to these organizations serving to folks.” Yarzagaray works with nonprofit The Aloe Household to assist immigrants from Central and South America discover job alternatives in Nashville.

Many native organizations, together with TIRRC, have ”know your rights” info on their web sites and are main workshops to assist small enterprise homeowners know what to do if ICE brokers present up. Many restaurant homeowners interviewed by the Scene with the promise of anonymity say they’ve advised their employees to not let brokers in with out proof of an arrest warrant. Silva encourages enterprise homeowners to be taught extra about their rights and obligations and to get info from respected organizations which have a historical past of working with immigrant communities, similar to Conexión Américas, TIRRC and Catholic Charities.

When requested how involved he’s about immigrant backlash and potential deportations as he expands his enterprise, Victoria says, “The reply is a little bit complicated. In a technique, no. We are available in, we make nice meals, and we serve nice meals to all our mates. You may’t actually dwell your life in worry. You may’t actually let worry cease you from doing what you like to do.”

However he doesn’t dwell in a vacuum. Since he was a toddler, he’s been conscious of the problems going through immigrants, and as he hears about proposals to forestall undocumented youngsters from accessing schooling, he’s disheartened. 

“Possibly immigration is like 20 or 30 p.c of that concern,” he says. “I believe there’s a variety of issues occurring within the nation, and a few of them really feel unhuman.” 

Like Yarzagaray, Victoria tries to assist the place he can, shopping for pens and paper for college children and blankets for these experiencing homelessness.

“As a substitute of complaining about it or fascinated about how unfair it truly is, it isn’t going to vary something. So I’d moderately take into consideration what can I do to assist as a substitute.” τ