• Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers have visited workplaces across the country.
• HR, crisis management, and legal pros say they're helping clients prepare for potential raids.
• Experts say having a plan can help ensure workers and customers stay safe.

After federal immigration agents raided a Miami construction site in May, lawyer Alex Barthet got a call from a developer client seeking advice on what he should do if they showed up at his nearby property.

Barthet said he recommended closing off the premises to visitors, putting up No Trespassing signs, and being ready to turn agents away if they don't show a proper warrant.

"You create this little bit of a walled garden," he told Business Insider, though he conceded that workers could still get detained once they left the work site.

Employers have long had response plans for extreme weather, active shooters, and other workplace emergencies. Now, some are quietly preparing for immigration raids, too — even if they believe everyone on their payroll is legally permitted to work in the US.

Human resources, crisis management, and legal professionals say they're helping clients take the extra step to keep workers safe, minimize disruption to operations, and avoid being charged with hefty fees if they lack accurate employment-authorization documents known as I-9s.

Preparing for an ICE raid may be especially relevant for employers in industries such as food processing and construction, they say, as these typically rely on immigrant labor. In some cases, workers are alreadynot showing up for shifts, fearful of getting swept up in raids — though the arrival of armed agents in the workplace could be scary for anyone. ICE did not comment for this article.

"We have a responsibility to protect employees," said Kim Minnick, an HR consultant in Napa, California, who developed a rapid response template for Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids earlier this year and posted it online to share with her industry peers. It features tips such as keeping within arm's reach a list of emergency contacts for any workers who get detained.

"They may have minors waiting to be picked up at school," Minnick said.

More workplace raids expected

Since January, ICE has highlighted arrests made at worksites across the country, including a meat-processing plant in Omaha, Nebraska, a fire-equipment company in Kings Mountain, North Carolina, and a Louisiana racetrack. It's part of an effort to meet the Trump administration's 3,000 arrest-per-day minimum. The administration has attributed the effort to protecting the nation.

"Worksite enforcement remains a cornerstone of our efforts to safeguard public safety, national security, and economic stability," Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin told BI in a statement.

ICE hasn't specified how many workplaces have been raided overall, though more visits could be on the horizon. Last week, President Donald Trump signed into law a bill that provides ICE with additional funding and resources to go after undocumented immigrants, including enough detention capacity to maintain an average daily population of 100,000 individuals.

Developing a plan

Employers are already mandated by the federal government to have at least a generic emergency response plan that is up to date, though not all do, said Bo Mitchell, president of 911 Consulting in Wilton, Connecticut.

He suspects that some company leaders are fearful that preparing for the possibility of an ICE raid in particular could be misinterpreted externally to mean they're harboring undocumented workers or engaging in a political act.

"Nobody wants to talk about it because of overtones of politics," Mitchell said.

Yet those who don't take such caution may be putting their credibility at risk, said Michelle Sinning, a principal at Bernstein Crisis Management in Mission Viejo, California.

"Your competence may come into question if you're not able to handle a high-pressure situation with confidence," she said.

Companies can also face fines in the tens of thousands of dollars for every employee lacking proper I-9 documentation in the event of a surprise audit by ICE or another government entity, said Tina Ullmann, an HR consultant in Milford, Connecticut. Even a clerical error can be costly, she said.

Preparing for an ICE visit

In addition to ensuring those I-9s are compliant, employers should train workers who greet visitors to be ready to escort any ICE agents who show up to an area that isn't private but won't interfere with customers or other employees, such as a conference room, said immigration attorney Christine Rodriguez in Atlanta.

These workers should then know to alert the right personnel to interact with the agents, such as the company's CEO, head of HR, or lead counsel, she said.

ICE agents are not legally permitted to access private areas of a workplace without a judicial warrant, which will say "U.S. District Court" and bear the signature of a federal judge, said Evan Fray-Witzer, an employment lawyer in Boston. By contrast, he said administrative warrants do not legally grant such access and so employers would be within their rights to deny entry to ICE agents bearing only one of those.

Leadership or employees should never interfere with ICE agents' actions — even if they believe their actions to be illegal — or they could face obstruction charges, warned Fray-Witzer. Instead, he suggested trying to document the incident by recording video or taking notes, as these could come in handy should the matter lead to a lawsuit.

"There is no benefit to the employer or the employee to try and talk ICE out of taking someone," said Fray-Witzer. "The best thing to do is get as much information as you possibly can."

• Alfredo Linares moved to Mexico with his wife Raegan Klein due to deportation fears in the U.S.
• The couple left Los Angeles with $20,000 in debt after closing their Japanese barbecue pop-up restaurant.
• After several months of instability, the two are finally finding some footing in Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco.

When Raegan Klein and Alfredo Linares married last summer, their dream felt straightforward and simple: start a Japanese barbecue pop-up restaurant in Los Angeles and live happily ever after.

But all of that changed in the fall when President Donald Trump, who had promised mass deportations on the campaign trail, won reelection.

Linares, who had worked his way up in fine dining to become a cook in a Michelin Star restaurant, arrived in the US as a teenager at 19 with his family and has lived here illegally ever since. Klein, a US citizen, was stricken with worry that at any moment, her husband could be arrested and deported.

"I really didn't feel safe," Klein said. "Every morning I would wake up saying, 'If we don't go and something happens to him, I'll never be able to forgive myself.' "

In March, the couple moved from Culver City to Linare's birth country of Mexico in hopes of improving their chances of building a future together.

"I lived in the shadows for 20 years," Linares said. "I'm 38 years old, so I don't think I have 10 more years of living in the shadows when I'm trying to build a business and grow as a family, as an entrepreneur."

Going into debt to move to Mexico

The couple received around $10,000 in cash from their parents as a wedding gift. They had originally hoped to use the money to hire a lawyer to help Linares gain citizenship, but they wrestled with the best way to use the money to secure a future together.

"Do we really go ahead and gamble and trust this administration with this $10,000 that our parents gave us for our wedding gifts, or do we use that $10,000 to move to Mexico?" Klein said of their dilemma.

But even the wedding gift wasn't enough to help them break even and start fresh in Mexico. The pair took on debt to start their Japanese barbecue business last spring. While they tried to get it off the ground, their bills ballooned to over $20,000. They raised over $4,000 online through GoFundMe to help them with their relocation.

Since the move, they've attempted to find jobs in hospitality, but because Linares doesn't have an identification card and Klein doesn't have work authorization as a temporary resident, it's been difficult to pay the bills.

"We're not earning an income," Klein said. "We have all of that stress and try to keep our credit card in a reasonable place and keep ourselves on a budget."

Adjusting to life in a new country

The biggest hurdle for them has been navigating the deluge of paperwork and bureaucracy in a new country.

"I'm very Americanized," Linares said. "Yes, I'm Mexican, but I haven't been here for 20 years. It's totally different from the Mexico I left."

From needing a physical copy of a birth certificate to struggling to establish Linares' permanent residence, it's been hard for him to get an ID card when they were first living in Airbnbs in Mexico City.

"I need my ID, but I cannot have an ID because I don't have a home address. And I can't get a home address because I don't have a job, because I don't have an ID," Linares said of the frustrating situation.

Now they are renting an apartment in Puerto Vallarta in the state of Jalisco, where they've been finally settling in over the past three weeks.

"I feel like myself a little bit more," Klein said of the stability. "I'm realizing that this is where we live, this is our home. We're not on vacation."

Klein is now able to see past the trials of the past few months and look toward the future with more hope. They've since brought down their rescue dog Dolly Love from Los Angeles to live with them in Mexico.

"I do believe we made the right choice," Klein said. "I do believe that there's opportunity here. I do believe in my husband and his talents and his skills."

The move to Mexico has tested their relationship and challenged them in many different ways, but Linares said the core of their bond hasn't been shaken.

They keep a routine of checking in with each other over coffee every morning. "She makes things easier, and it's because of the communication that we have," Linares said of his wife.