Welcome to another episode of The Corner Booth, the official podcast of RestaurantOwner.com. Today, the restaurant industry is changing faster than ever. Learn from successful independent restaurant operators and other industry leaders as they share best practices that will help you engage your team, delight your guests, and grow your business. And welcome everyone to another Corner Booth. I'm Chris Tripoli with restaurantowner.com.
Most of you regular listeners know how much fun we have showcasing the independent restaurant operator, bringing you restaurant owner operators that share their story and help us learn from one another. But from time to time, we vary from that guest to bring you industry knowledgeable manageable services that help. We've done that to provide helpful tips on finding financing, for example. Many listeners told us they enjoyed our help with planning marketing.
And so today, we brought an industry specialist to you to talk about a hot topic that a lot of small restaurant operators either don't totally understand, certainly have problems with, and that's Managing Immigration Policies for the Small Restaurant. I have got an industry leader, Jacob Monti, who is with the Monti Ramirez Law Firm. The specialty is Immigration Policies.
Jacob is going to walk us through the complications and hopefully bring some clarity to help us better manage immigration for our businesses. Jacob, welcome to Corner Booth. Happy to be in the Corner Booth with Chris Tripoli. Thank you for this opportunity. Absolutely. Well, we've known each other a long time, and I know that you are a fantastic supporter of the restaurant industry, the Restaurant Association, and its members.
But for those listeners who maybe don't know much about you, why don't you take a minute and talk a little bit about you, how you got interested in the hospitality industry, so we know a little bit about how this all came about. Well, great. I started my firm in 1998 with a focus on labor and employment and immigration, and that's all we've ever done.
We started out representing quite a few restaurants and supermarkets, and over the last 26 years, we've grown, but always the hospitality industry has been a core industry that we've always represented. And, you know, I've been on the Greater Houston Restaurant Association for many years. I was on that board. That's how I got to know you, Chris. And then now I just got named to the Texas Restaurant Association Board. I'm a special advisor to Emily Knight, and I'm looking forward to that.
And what else can I say? The industry is one that I'm very proud of. When you look at what we've done for immigrants, for women, for minorities, this is the one industry that outshines all the others. Having said that, the new administration is posing some challenges for our industry, and I look forward to talking with you about that. Everyone seems to think like we're the only industry that needs immigrants.
Of course, that's not the case, but certainly immigrants are a big part of our industry. And we're going to talk about what the new administration changes, what they mean for the restaurant industry. But let me just say this, because we've been really inundated with questions. The hysteria is really worse than what's happening on the ground.
I just wanted to say that because you turn on the news, and look, we're not even 30 days into this administration, but yet to read the news or listen to the news, you would think that mass raids are occurring every day, that people are getting rounded up at, bus stops. It's really not that. But what is happening is this overblown hysteria that has been amplified by social media. And it's made it pretty bad for the industry, pretty bad for the workers, pretty bad for the companies.
We've had situations of people not showing up for work. It's getting better now, but it really reached its peak January 22nd. So we're going to talk about that. Well, you know, and that's a very good first point to make that maybe we can all find a little bit of satisfaction in settling down. Because the, as you mentioned, the reality of managing immigration today is not as bad as the hysteria. That's good to know because I, like maybe many people, just don't know.
Don't know exactly what rules or maybe we need to brush up on rules and how to properly manage things because that's been my response is what's going to happen to the industry if workers get scared, don't show up. What do we do? If they're scared, don't want to send kids to school. Well, what do we do? So, wow. Okay, so since 1998, you've been at this. Your specialty has always been labor and immigration. You've always been active
in the restaurant industry. So that helps us because as we know, we've got some unique cares and concerns, I guess, in other industries. Thank you for being active as you are on boards and as advisors to the Restaurant Association. How did this get you connected with James Beard? Because I think the last year, you got very active in the board, right, of the James Beard Foundation. I'm so lucky. This is the best board I've ever been on, Chris.
I'm one of the newest members of the James Beard Foundation. I was appointed to the board last year. There's two Texas board members, and I'm one of them, and it's great. This is the premier food organization really in the world, and it celebrates American cuisine that had never really been highlighted before. We're all about good food for good, and I'm very lucky to be on this board, believe in what we do.
And I think it's really been a culmination of dedicating myself to the industry for so many years and being recognized and being able to serve the industry. So I'm very happy about that. Thanks for mentioning it. I could talk about James Beard all day long. Well, yes.
And so many of our listeners I know enjoy the fact that the James Beard Foundation is out there and has been for years recognizing small, sort of the undiscovered, the up and coming, you know, the hands on husband and wife teams and newer chefs. And so we learn, obviously, from watching those people. And many of us, you know, compete to get better year after year to try to become one of those recognized people. So good luck with that. Great. No, thank you.
Okay, so let's jump into this. Knowing that our listeners are mostly in the business, we're small, hands-on, independent operators. Hopefully, we're knowledgeable in doing things correctly. But right now, we're just scared and not sure if we're really prepared. For the immigration rules and policies. So could you start by talking a little bit about things that you see, you know, with the years that you've worked that are concerns?
And then maybe we could go from those issues that are concerns and help us understand those concerns. So maybe we make fewer mistakes with the hiring and the paperwork and the things that, you know, what we're needing to do today? Well, first, yes. First, let's start with kind of addressing some of the language and make sure we use the proper language. Because you turn on the news and you'll hear about immigration rates. What is an immigration rate?
Well, let's discuss that. An immigration raid is very unusual. There have been only maybe three raids since the new administration started last month. A raid is an unannounced initiative where ICE shows up at an employer and controls who exits and who enters the facility. Arrests are made at the facility. Documents are seized. This is a big undertaking. Raids are very expensive to undertake and they result in employees getting arrested, possibly employers getting arrested.
It's a big undertaking. But to listen to the media, you would think raids are happening every day. They're not. Raids are very rare. I'm only aware of two raids that have occurred since 2025 when the new administration started. But again, Again, people are calling arrests, raids. Let's talk about what is happening. I said raids are not happening. Targeted arrests by ICE are indeed happening. And that's what is happening right now. Typically, these targeted arrests happen at the alien's home.
And these are not random undertakings. These are people that ICE has a file on, a packet on. You know, the administration would have everyone believe that they're all hardened criminals. They're all gang members. You know, the reality is the bulk of the people being arrested have already been ordered, deported and failed to leave. That's really the bulk of the people that are being arrested. Oh, really? Yeah. And and again, they.
Most of these arrests, almost all of them, are happening at the alien's residence. They're not happening at the employer's place of business. And there is a quota. The administration is talking about it. The goal is anywhere between 1,000 and 1,500 people per day. But that's a nationwide goal. Bear that in mind. There's probably 14 million undocumented workers in America. So even if you did 1,000 a day, you're not going to be able to dent the huge population of undocumented workers in America.
But look, our employees are scared. Our community is scared. Our customers are scared. I mentioned social media is amplifying this and making it worse. People are posting irresponsibly. Oh, there's a raid at the corner of I-45 and this street. A raid is happening at the mall. That's not happening. But yet, people feel free to post inaccurately, irresponsibly. And it is causing people, as you said, to not go to work, to not go to school, not go to the doctor. And we have to stop that.
There's another category of ICE engagement that could happen at a restaurant. And that is when ICE delivers an inspection notice to the employer. That's called an NOI. And we are seeing that occur now, whereas it didn't occur very often under the Biden era. So we are seeing I-9 inspections. Chris, one of the confusing things about this is the way an I-9 inspection starts is the ICE officer actually delivers the notice of the audit to the restaurant.
So sometimes you could hear of, oh, well, I saw ICE at this restaurant. Maybe, but they weren't there to raid. They were there to deliver an NOI, a notice of an I-9 audit. But you can see how that could spark a fierce, inaccurate rumor that ICE was at a restaurant. I'll tell you what we have also seen is ICE sometimes goes to restaurants to eat. Can you believe that? And now, you know, that has caused some panic.
Employees see ICE or other law enforcement officials eating at the restaurant, and they assume they're there on official business.
You know that they could be on official business but most of the time if they're there they could be there to eat and you know again this is sort of the problem with the hysteria that's happening right now so i just wanted to you know get our get our language straight raids are not really happening a very few raids we are seeing targeted arrests of aliens basically it's people that have already been deported, people that failed to leave.
These are not random encounters that ICE is just picking people up. There's some investigation on there. Now, one big thing that is different under Biden versus Trump is there's something called a collateral arrest. In the Biden era, if ICE went to arrest someone at a house and they saw other undocumented workers there, those workers were not arrested. In the Trump era, these people that are encountered at the house of the targeted individual will be arrested.
That is a collateral arrest, and that is one big difference. So that's something else to keep in mind. But this idea that People are being targeted randomly. It's just not happening There's 14 million undocumented workers in America It's a big number Let me throw out another interesting fact We talk about this The number of people that have already been deported And failed to leave, The number, the backlog is 1.4 million people.
So it's not like they're going to get done with that number anytime soon and have to start just rounding normal undocumented people up that they don't even have a file on. There's a huge backlog of people. Wow. I didn't know that it was that many. But see, that would be my first question. Is there anything to do? If you're a restaurant employer, one of those 1.4 million is found to be working for you.
Maybe he or she's been working for you for a while. All of a sudden, now you're made aware that this person is undocumented, is on the list. I hear what you're saying. If you're one of the 1.4 million, it might take a long time to come and find you. Is there something people can do to get off of that $1.4 million list, get into the documentation process correctly? Well, look, you know, the bulk of the undocumented workers in America are using fake documents that appear genuine on their face.
The employer has no actual knowledge that they're undocumented. And, you know, that's why we have so many undocumented workers. The I-9 law has been around since 1986. Everyone knows what that is. We have to, as employer, verify the identity and work eligibility of the employees. But employees have found fake documents. These fake documents are everywhere. You can buy them on the internet at a swap meet. And oftentimes, these documents are so good, they fool even the government.
Everyone likes to make a big deal of e-verify. Well, E-Verify is a good program for some employers, but it also doesn't pick up instances of identity theft. So... Oftentimes, you have U.S. citizens selling their identity to put that identity to work so that they can accumulate Social Security benefits. You have prisoners' identities being sold on the Internet, on the dark web, so that these prisoners can accumulate Social Security credits.
I mean, it's a huge problem. You know, the employee has a total of 32 different documents that they can present to the employer as part of the I-9 process. Employers can't demand a certain type of document, and you can't engage in document abuse or discrimination. So employers are really, their hands are tied oftentimes. Are there undocumented workers in the industry? Absolutely, but most of the times, employers don't know about it. You raised a good question, though.
What if you know that Jose has already been deported? And that's something that you should at least know because if you do know that, he is a risk of being on that list. And he could cause a risk to your restaurant. So if you really know that he's already been deported and come back, again, you shouldn't hire him.
And you shouldn't have employed him, but putting that aside, if you know people that might be on that list, it's worth discussing that with them and finding out, can you continue to employ him? Can you still in good faith say that you have no reason to believe he's undocumented? Maybe that's the case. Maybe he presented good documents that appear genuine on his face. But at the same time, If you know definitively that, you know, he's using big documents, you can't continue to employ him. Okay.
Well, you just scared me with the 30-some types of documents that an employee can provide to an employer. Holy moly, how do we keep up? I mean, I think we're still looking for things like a valid driver's license, social security card, and that's it. You know, one of the cases I used to illustrate how complex this I-9 form really is, was a case involving the national chain. What was their big mistake? They asked employees to re-verify their permanent resident alien card.
Chris, this is a card that on its face says it expires in 10 years. It's only good for 10 years. You know, it seems reasonable to, at the end of that 10 year period to create a tracking system and bring in the employee and make sure that he has renewed his card, right? Sure. That seems reasonable. The answer is wrong. That's illegal. Because if they have a permanent resident alien card, you can't ask them to re-verify, even if the card expires. The reasoning is that he's a permanent resident.
Permanent residency does not expire. Their card may expire, but their status as permanent residence does not expire. So just think about that. I mean, that's how complex it is. And, you know, employers can get in trouble for not taking the I-9 law seriously, but they can also get in trouble for overdoing it and engaging in document abuse. So it is a complex area of law. The I-9 law has been on the books since 86. Employers routinely mess up on it.
Everything begins with the I-9. You have to have a procedure to make sure that you're complying with the I-9 law. The big question that comes up is, should I copy documents or not copy? You don't have to copy documents. Copying is a good way to show good faith, but you don't have to copy the documents that the employee presents. One thing to remember is the employee must present original documents. The employee cannot present copies.
Employers can choose to copy the documents, but they don't have to. But bear in mind that the employee during the hiring process must present you with original doctors. And, you know, the question I always get is, well, what, what is an employer to do? What. How much due diligence do you have to engage in? Chris, the best way to describe this is you're held to the eighth grader standard. If a document has a misspelling on it, don't accept it. If you have two people
in one photo, don't accept it. That's not reasonable. If someone presents a document that doesn't look like the person in front of you, don't accept it. So barring what I call the hall of shame scenarios, if the document looks like the person in front of you, you as the employer should accept that document. So, you know, that's important. There's very clear case law and guidance that you're not a document expert. You're held to a reasonable person standard.
And judges that have looked at this have come up with this reasonable eighth-grader standard. An eighth-grader would know that Texas is not spelled T-E-J-A-S, right? I mean, now, I always say the quality of our fake documents in Texas are very good. We have some examples from the Hall of Shame, and they're not from Texas. But again, this is an area where fake documents look very real oftentimes.
Wow. Okay. So just to be clear, employers that we've always kind of known this, we need to see original documents. The documents need to be accurate. They need to be current. They need to have no misspellings. If there's obvious mistakes, we're not to take them. Obviously, if the picture does not look just like the individual. So if we're using that reasonableness, then that means we're still in accordance with what we need to for documentation and we go forward. Yeah, absolutely.
One big change that has happened is there's now electronic I-9s that are possible and that's a good development because that's cut down on errors that used to occur when you had paper I-9s. Electronic I-9s have really cut down on the amount of paperwork violations and, Just make sure that the i9 system that you're using is actually approved by ICE, that it has the security features to make sure that it can't be altered and whatnot. But the electronic i9 is good.
There's different providers out there. You don't have to use an electronic i9. You can use paper. Everything begins with the i9. What I am seeing right now, Chris Tripoli, is some issues like employers are going back and we're advising employers to do a self-audit to make sure that they have I-9s for all current employees. That is critical. What happens if you go back and you're missing I-9s for a month in 2000 or a year, as I'm helping a number of employers deal with? No big deal.
If you're missing I-9s, you just have to re-accomplish that. And now they're going to be late, but there's a very strong I-9 defense called the good faith defense. And as long as you don't backdate a document, as long as you call attention to the fact that you weren't perfect, if you are missing some I-9s, re-accomplish them. How do you do that? We always advise employers to do a re-accomplishment in red ink, if they're doing them on paper, to call attention to the fact that,
hey, we did a self-audit. We noticed that we were missing I-9s on these employees. We reaccomplished them. We redid them. We did them in red ink. We didn't backdate the document. Is it going to be late? Absolutely. Because remember, the I-9 has to be completed by the employer within three days of being hired. Within three days of you hiring the employee, you have to complete the I-9. So if you hired this employee in 2000 and you re-accomplish it in 2025.
You know, it's going to be late, but better late than never. And oftentimes, if I sees that you did this, you're not going to get fined. It's going to be a good faith, an example of a good faith defense. So again, reaccomplish any I-9s that are missing. Go through the I-9, make sure that every section is actually completed. The I-9 has section one, which the employee completes, It's Section 2, which the employer completes. And then there's a Section 3 for re-verifying certain documents.
We mentioned the I-9 situation for permanent resident aliens. You don't have an obligation to re-verify. But if you have an employee with a limited work authority document, like a DACA student or a DACA person that has a DACA card. That card is only good for a period of time, three years. And after that, it has to be re-verified. So there is a re-verification obligation on the employer's part for certain needs. So bear that in mind. But if you get the I-9 right, you're going to be fine.
So that's important to underline. It is. With small hands-on restaurant operators, they're all out there. They're concerned. The key thing is to just sort of focus on getting the I-9 right, and we will be all right. I did not know what you mentioned here about the good faith defense. And so it's better to be accurate, not to ever backdate. So a self-audit is something that should be done in restaurants. It should be done regularly. If we're found that there is a document missing,
go back and reaccomplish. Better to be late and be accurate is what I'm hearing. Absolutely. You know, you can have a third party audit your I-9s and that's good. And we're not saying we shouldn't. I mean, we'd love for you to use Monty Ramirez, but you don't need a third party audit. What you need is to do an internal audit first to see, do you have an I-9 on it?
So it starts with an internal self audit. And right now is the time to do it because we are seeing employers get notices of I-9 inspections since the new administration started. And we've helped many employers in that situation. We're helping many employers now. Some of them are restaurants. The question becomes, how did I get my audit? Did my number just show up? Was it random? I-9 audits are never random. Somebody turned you in. How could that be? Who could that be?
Well, to be perfectly honest with you, the biggest way you could get an I-9 notice audit is if you have an individual who... An employee of yours is using their identity and you reported revenue to this innocent bystander's identity and was an instance of identity theft. Sometimes employers don't respond to innocent bystanders who have complaints of identity theft. And the victim ends up calling law enforcement, calling ICE because the employer failed to correct the problem.
We have a guidance called the Innocent Bystander Victim of Identity Theft Protocol, and it advises you what to do if you have a situation where some lady calls you from Idaho and says, Chris, I've never worked for your company in Texas. You're reporting revenue to my social. Please help me. This is a great opportunity for you as the restaurateur to jump on the situation. If that employee still works for you, you interview them.
Hey, does this number really belong to you? If they say no, of course you're going to have to terminate him. But now you have an obligation to solve the problem for the innocent bystander. And that could be filing an amended WC3 report with the government to let the government know that you reported revenue to their number erroneously.
If you do that and you act proactively, you can solve the problem for the innocent bystander and you can avoid possibly getting on ISIS radar screen and ending up with an I-9 audit. I-9 audits, they're two-pronged. The first one is making sure the I-9s are accurate and finding employers if employers mess up and don't complete the I-9 properly. The second prong is ascertaining if the employees are authorized to work. And ICE will let you know if the employees are authorized to work.
And if they find undocumented employees, you will have to terminate them. ICE will tell you you have 10 days to terminate these employees. And if ICE tells you that, you need to terminate them. You can't rehire them. You can't send them to another location. You can't turn them into independent contractors. You know, I've seen some cases turn from civil matters into criminal matters, and it's when employers try to get cute, when they try to evade what ICE is telling them.
Well, OK, we're just going to move them, move these 10 employees to our other location. We can't do that. Or I'm just going to call all these guys independent contractors. You can't do that. I've seen cases turn into criminal cases where ICE is able to show that the employer was evading the command of ICE.
And there, when ICE tells you that they're undocumented and you rehire them at a different location or via a staffing company, it's very easy for ICE to show you knew what you were doing and you did it anyways. So don't do that. Also, we always advise employers, don't ever engage in harboring situations. Don't ever rent an apartment for someone that might be undocumented. They can rent their own apartment. I've seen employers get into trouble because they're overly paternalistic.
Well, we started a new location in the city and we thought it would be good to rent them an apartment. They can rent their own apartment. Hiring penalties are very severe. They're big, but the harboring penalties are much worse. Hiring penalties start at $280 and can go up to as much as $10,000. They're big. But a harboring, harboring undocumented workers, the penalties start at half a million dollars, and they can escalate beyond that. So avoid harboring situations.
And most employers, of course, don't do that. But we have seen employers get into trouble where they harbor or hide employees. You don't want to. No, no. You just hit some very good do's and do nots. Obviously, we cannot, if we learn that one of our employees is not legal, we cannot say, okay, I'll fire him like he told me to.
I'll terminate him from this corporation. corporation but i'm going to move them to the other side of town because that's a different corporation i like what you were saying that sometimes we think we might be doing something good but boy oh boy if we are renting apartments and now we're harboring that's a charge that's going to be getting over and the next one i would really like you to talk a little bit more about and that's
the fact that we think we could take somebody off our payroll and still use their services by having them under an independent contractor agreement okay we can't do that but that brings up a question. Are we liable as employers when we do engage the services of others on a contract basis? So they are an independent contract. What are our responsibilities, if any, for their I-9s or for us to know if they're legal or not?
Great question. First off, remember, the I-9 mandate only applies to employees. So it does not apply to contract. So if someone is a real bonafide independent contractor, you don't need an I-9 on it. But what is really an independent contractor? Well, there's a number of tests, different agencies have different tests, but essentially it's control. It comes down to control.
You can't have an independent contractor that only works for you, comes in like an employee, is paid weekly and acts like all of your other employees, but you just call them an independent contractor. That dog won't move. But it becomes a little harder with a hat check person, somebody who runs the hat check at a fine dining establishment. They're only there on the weekends. Is that an independent contractor? Maybe. They're not there all the time. In some cases, They actually work for tips.
They only, you know, run that little, you know, check-in department. You know, that might be a legitimate independent contractor. But, you know, a cook is not going to be an independent contractor. A server is not going to be an independent contractor. No. But, you know, bringing in extra help for banquets, sometimes they may be able to qualify as an independent contractor, but not if they're there all the time, right? Not if they're a core part of your staff. You have to do co.
I'm glad you covered that. Now, the questions that I see are typically answered just like that. They'll come up and if it is a banquet staff that also works other places for parties, also works for other caterers and you use them from time to time, yeah, I felt comfortable with that. Or if it's an individual that you're bringing in to do, say, weekly bookkeeping, they're doing your books, but they also work for other people too.
And they pick their own hours and that kind of stuff. I see how that would comply. Maybe even people that you bring in for weekend valet, if you're busy and You have a valet attendant. I guess that's kind of, yeah, that's like your heart hat check. Okay. I'm glad we touched on that because those listeners that are out there that think that maybe your head waiter or your head cook is an independent contractor, I'm getting out of some rules and regulations, we're in trouble.
Absolutely. Well, look, let's, let's talk now about, you know, I've often used the analogy of the don't ask, don't tell policy that operated in the military regarding gays in the military. And the rule was, as long as you don't see it, as long as you don't ask about it regarding gays in the military, you're fine. They can stay in the services. Unfortunately, that rule has been repealed and have gays in the military. But at the time, that was the standard.
Don't ask, don't tell. I use that to illustrate what our position has to be regarding undocumented workers. Look, if they're undocumented and you don't know about it, that's fine. But once you know about it, then you do have a duty to act. So remember that. You want to avoid learning too much about your employees, because if you learn information about them that's different from the payroll information, from the I-9 information, then you have a duty to act.
And bring this up right now, because of the hysteria that has affected the immigrant community, you have people worried about showing up to work. You have people worried about what to do if they see immigration as customers or in the store, in the restaurant. Because the U.S. Citizens actually worried about the attempted repeal of birthright citizenship, because you have DACA recipients who are worried about the fact that DACA has not been formally approved.
Solved via legislation. Employers certainly have a little window where we can raise immigration issues without admitting that our employees are undocumented. Another factor is just because an employee raises immigration doesn't mean that they're admitting they're undocumented. We know that there are many mixed status families. Most undocumented workers live in a household with legal employees, legal individuals.
So your employee who raises immigration may be worried about their undocumented family members. So look, there's a window where you can raise general concerns with employees without admitting that you know that they're undocumented. Because again, you have US citizens that are worried about, hey, am I going to be able to still get a US pass support. My parents were both undocumented workers. Under Trump's plan, you wouldn't be considered a real U.S.
Citizen and able to get a pass support unless at least one of your parents was authorized to work when you were born. So look, I think that law is going to get, it's being challenged in the courts right now, but that's a good example how you have authorized workers also concerned about some of Trump's immigration plans. Overall, it's good because you do have a little window where you can talk about this without admitting that you know that people are undocumented.
We have a proposed policy that we've written for different people, for different employers to consider using to calm some of the nerves affecting the community right now. That's something to consider. The other thing that you as an employer need to understand is just because you get arrested and just because an employee gets arrested doesn't mean that they're going to get deported immediately. Everyone has due process. If someone has been in the U.S. for 10 years and they have a U.S.
Citizen child or spouse, they can violate the cancellation of deportation, cancellation of removal proceedings. And they can ultimately have their day in court to prove that deporting them would cause undue hardship to a U.S. Citizen spouse or U.S. citizen child. That court date is so backballed right now, it won't be heard until five, probably five to six years right now. But during that process, during those five years, they may get work authority
to actually work for you during that period of time. So bear that in mind also. Even someone who is arrested as part of these sweeps that are happening, these targeted arrests, may be able to actually challenge the removal and ultimately may win the right to stay in the U.S. So bear that in mind. I bring it up because you as an employer need to be a trusted source of information for your employees. You know, the biggest deporter of undocumented workers is not Donald J. Trump.
It's DWI and domestic violence. How do most immigrants get on a radar screen? It's because they engaged in DWI activities, they engaged in domestic violence, and that's how they ended up getting on ISIS radar screen.
I bring that up because you know if you have employees even u.s resident employees if they have a dwy they could be subject to removal sure you may need to be you may need to have a a list of a good criminal defense lawyer that you can refer you know this cook to who's maybe a u.s i mean maybe he's a resident alien but you know this is his second dwy he's going to be put in removal proceedings, and he's going to come to you and say, boss, what do I do?
It's good to do some research and find a good immigration lawyer you can possibly refer people to, a good criminal defense lawyer that you can refer them to. Remember, aliens, they can't plead guilty to a lot of crimes because that'll be automatic deportation. So for them, back to this DWI scenario, they have to try that case because if they plead guilty, that's going to be an aggravated felony and they're going to get deported.
So, you know, be a trusted source of information for your employees. Do some research. Have a list of good criminal defense lawyers, a good immigration lawyer in the community. And I guess it would be wise at this point to remind the listeners that good sources for that information would be staying close to their restaurant association, whatever city or state that you're in. And now's a very good time to make sure that you're a current member and that you're staying close.
Because as I understand it, most all of our state associations are trying to stay current on this issue, have knowledgeable sources that they can refer members to as these questions do arise. And I have a question right now. If I wanted to be a good, caring employer, I have an employee in good standing. But what if they do tell me that somebody who's living in their household is undocumented? That undocumented person isn't working for me, isn't doing anything wrong as far as I know.
How could that person become documented? I mean, you mentioned there's like, what, almost 14 million undocumented individuals in our country today. Well, if they are living in a household with people who are legally documented, they don't want to get anyone in trouble. What can they do to say, I want to become documented? What's the process? Chris, this is where the system fails us miserably. We haven't had any immigration
reform to speak of since 1986. it's virtually impossible to go from undocumented to documented. If you entered a country without inspection, it's virtually impossible. So, you know, we get called every, every week we get an employer who says, Jacob, we don't care what it costs. Mr. Mendez here, he's a superintendent. He's our best superintendent. We don't care what it costs. Is it 50 grand?
We'll pay for it. Well, oftentimes, most of the time, the answer is, even if this guy marries a U.S. citizen, even if Mendez marries a U.S. Citizen, he entered without inspection. The laws are draconian. They're very harsh. Under that scenario, Mr. Mendez marries a U.S. citizen. He's going to have to go back to Mexico and wait 10 years as a penalty for having entered without inspection. Is he going to leave? No. So what does he do? He's married to a U.S. Citizen and he stays undocumented.
The system is broken. There is no line for most people. It's the most frustrating part of our job because in most cases, 90% of the cases, you can't go from undocumented to undocumented. Having said that, sometimes there's some scenarios that do allow someone to get legal status. You know, if they're the victim of a violent crime, they can get a U visa. If they have a U.S. citizen child who enters the armed forces, maybe the U.S.
Citizen child can petition for them, but they would still have to leave the country. But if they're in the military, they can adjust here in the U.S. You know, there's some limited examples. The U visa, the parole in place, but for most people, parole in place for people that are in the military. But in most cases, there's really no way to fix your status. We need immigration reform. Both political parties have failed the country on this front. That's why the number is so big.
You have almost 2 million people that are married, they're undocumented but they're married to U.S. Citizens there's visas available for them today but they would be subject to the 10 year penalty to have to stay in the country for, stay out of the country for 10 years so they're not going to do that you know the other thing is this idea that. The community is just going to leave and they're going to self-deport. That's a fallacy. I think the administration is way off on that.
The undocumented community is resilient. They face harder things than the possibility of deportation. So they're not going to leave. I do need to mention something. We are seeing a lot of scammers. We're seeing the rise of TikTok lawyers that promise quick fixes and charge aliens a lot of money for no real relief. And then another fraud has emerged in a great, in a big way, and that is the notary. In Mexico or El Salvador, a notary is like a judge.
Of course, Chris, you know that here in the U.S., a notary is not a judge. It's just a notary public. And yet these guys scam the immigrants. I'm working on a case right now in Brenham, Texas, where this notary scammed his cabinetmaker out of 20 grand.
Promised him that he could fix his status and it was alive and he he leased him of twenty thousand dollars his own life savings gone so you all as the restaurant community need to warn your employees about the prevalence of fraud the fraudsters are out there and uh you know you need to be able to refer them to good non-profits like catholic charities like the ripley house in Houston, immigrant rights organizations in different parts of the country.
And you can definitely reach out to your trade association to get a list of legitimate nonprofits. But bear in mind that the idea that you can fix someone's papers is really, really very unlikely. We need comprehensive immigration reform. But look, we will get through this, Chris. It's starting to get better, but employers do need to be engaged. They do need to stick close to the situation. This is a complicated area, and we will get through it.
But we need to rely on our associations. We need to rely on sources like the Corner Booth to get the good information out, too. Well, we will continue to get that out. We will get it out. So as a quick reminder, just in summary, for the listeners today, they're hands-on restaurant operators, the advice you're giving is to make sure that we stay on top of our responsibilities, I-9s, that they're accurate, that we, I guess, need to keep our files not only current accurate, but on-premise.
Is there any other advice that you would have for somebody with regard to I-9s or any other documentation rules that you have learned through your years of assisting small businesses that we do roll on? Look, I think we need to focus on the I-9. If you do get an I-9 audit, reach out to an experienced lawyer that deals with this. You don't want to try to do this yourself. I have seen some employers that think, well, I don't want ICE to think I'm guilty.
I'm going to just do it myself. Don't do that. Handling a 99 audit can be pretty routine if you know what to do and what not to do. But look, it all starts with the I-9. Make sure your I-9 exists for all employees, for all current employees. And then I would say remember to deal with the innocent bystander victims of identity theft.
That is very important. We have a guidance. As I said, the innocent bystander victims of identity theft guidance we provide to different trade associations like the TRA, like the Texas Hospitality Industry Association, or even just our firm. If anyone wants that, feel free to reach out to us or I'll send it to you. We have these little guidance documents that offer some real practical advice that employers can consider to help them deal with these issues.
Well, and we will certainly help to get that out. Jacob, please take our appreciation. I know you're in a conference right now in Mexico City. We took you away for an hour. We appreciate your time, your valuable insight, and the help you're giving the restaurant industry. Just quickly remind people how they could connect with you and your firm for more information, to get questions answered, to receive that information. What should our listeners do?
They should reach out to J. Monti at Monti Ramirez Law, And they should ask for the guidance on innocent bystander victims of identity theft and sample communication on how to communicate with your employees about immigration issues generally. We provide all of this free. I'm like you, Chris. I know you love to educate. I love educating and helping employers avoid problems because it's very rewarding to help someone avoid a problem. We don't make any money at that,
but it's rewarding. And we make plenty of money when employers mess up. But I really can't emphasize how much we love helping prevent problems from even developing. Well, thank you again. Thanks for offering that information. Please, listeners, take full advantage of that. Jacob, thanks again for your time today and all that you do. Wish you continued success. And for everyone else out there, go make it a great shift today. And we'll catch up soon on another Corner Booth.
Thank you for joining us on the Corner Booth. We'll be back next Tuesday with more inspiration, insights, and industry best practices to help you engage your team, delight your guests, and grow your business.