If federal immigration agents roll up to a Southern California hotel or stadium this summer, thousands of workers have been told they can clock out instead of stick around.
Unite Here Local 11 has notified more than 200 employers in Southern California and Arizona, representing over 32,000 hospitality workers, that staff may leave or refuse shifts if Immigration and Customs Enforcement or other federal enforcement agents appear at hotels, stadiums, airports, or nearby venues. The union is pressing hotels, stadiums, and airport vendors not to host immigration officers and not to force workers into what it calls unsafe conditions, according to the Los Angeles Times.
“If ICE or similar enforcement agents are present at or near your property, workers must be allowed to leave or refuse to report to work without reprisal,” the letter states. A banquet server quoted by the paper said many workers, including immigrants, are now nervous about commuting to shifts at all.
The warning comes as cities and venues gear up for a World Cup summer and the elevated security that comes with it. At a congressional hearing in February, ICE’s acting director said Homeland Security Investigations would be “a key part of the overall security apparatus” for the tournament, heightening the likelihood of a federal presence at matches, as reported by The Guardian. That confirmation has sharpened concerns among labor and civil-rights groups about what stepped-up deployments could mean for both workers and fans.
Union leaders have tied their alarm to a series of deadly and controversial encounters involving federal agents, pointing to the killings of Renée Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis and the December 31 death of Keith Porter in Northridge. They argue those incidents show how fast situations can escalate when armed federal officers are involved, a pattern detailed by Al Jazeera. The cases helped fuel large anti-ICE demonstrations last year and now anchor the union’s safety case.
The latest notice follows a summer of protests outside Pasadena and other area hotels that demonstrators said had been housing federal agents. The letter went to employers with contracts covering dozens of venues across the region. Several venues named as World Cup sites, including SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, did not immediately respond to requests for comment, the Los Angeles Times reported. Unite Here Local 11 told employers that the presence of immigration agents without a warrant can trigger contract provisions that allow workers to turn down assignments they consider unsafe.
What This Means Legally
The union says its labor agreements bar employers from letting immigration agents onto hotel or stadium property without a warrant and that their presence can create “unusually dangerous conditions” that activate safety protections in those contracts.
Federal workplace rules also give employees some limited leverage. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration notes that workers may have a legal right to refuse a task if they reasonably believe there is an imminent risk of death or serious injury and the employer does not fix the danger. OSHA lays out specific steps and protections for workers who decline work under those circumstances, guidance summarized by OSHA.
For hotel and stadium operators, the union’s message sets up a tough balancing act between cooperating with federal security plans and keeping staff out of volatile situations, a tension that could mean staffing shake-ups during key World Cup events. Union leaders say they will watch closely to see which properties host federal agents as the tournament approaches, and insist workers’ safety will not be traded for short-term security contracts.
