Reddit post about ICE at Eugene restaurant sparks criticism — and corrections

Overview:

Provisions, a downtown Eugene restaurant, is facing backlash after an anonymous online post on Wednesday claimed Immigration & Customs Enforcement agents were seen inside. But that allegation may not have been accurate.

An anonymous user claimed in a post to Eugene’s Reddit forum on Wednesday, Dec. 17, that they saw Immigration & Customs Enforcement agents drinking coffee inside Provisions Market Hall the day before.

The post generated nearly 1,000 reactions and hundreds of comments. Dozens of users criticized the grocery store and restaurant inside Eugene’s Fifth Street Public Market for serving the alleged agents, some pledging to no longer shop and eat there. Others said the claims were inaccurate or incomplete, accusing users of rushing to cancel the business.

ICE, one of several agencies housed under the Department of Homeland Security, has an office in downtown Eugene’s federal building on Seventh Avenue, along with other federal agencies like the Internal Revenue Service and the FBI. It is a 4-minute walk from Provisions, which appears to be the closest coffee shop to the building.

But the anonymous user — who goes by username “elderberry-queen” — later told Lookout Eugene-Springfield that the agents they witnessed were affiliated with DHS, not ICE specifically.

When Lookout called Eugene’s ICE office for comment, the person who picked up the phone denied that ICE agents had been at Provisions.

“I have very few officers, and I know exactly what they were doing all week,” said the official, who declined to state their name. “Whoever it was, it wasn’t ICE.”

The ICE official pointed to other agencies housed under DHS, adding: “Believe you me, in this climate, ICE isn’t going out with anything on our shirts. It ain’t happening.”

The Federal Protective Service, federal police that protect government buildings and employees, is one of such agencies housed under DHS. FPS officers are regularly seen patrolling the Seventh Avenue federal building; they detained one anti-ICE protester outside the building in August, two in September and one, briefly, in October.

Jessica MacMurray Blaine, the CEO and creative director of the Marché Restaurant Group, which owns Provisions’ three locations, confirmed to Lookout that a group of DHS agents buy coffee at Fifth Street Market Provisions regularly.

On Tuesday, between four and seven uniformed agents grabbed coffee at the location, she said, adding that she personally wasn’t there. Their uniforms said “Homeland Security” and “law enforcement,” Blaine said. When showed a photo of FPS officer uniforms to compare to the ones she has seen before, she said the uniforms match “more or less.”

“There wasn’t anything that said anything about ICE specifically,” Blaine said.

In the original Wednesday Reddit post, the anonymous poster said that after seeing the agents inside Provisions, they called the business and spoke with an employee to see if they were “OK with hosting ICE.”

The employee allegedly responded that the agents were “not the ones taking people off the streets,” per the post.

The anonymous poster said they then asked the employee to post a sign welcoming immigrants outside Provisions. The staffer said immigrants are welcome, but refused to post a sign, the anonymous poster said, which prompted their criticism of the business on Reddit.

Blaine confirmed the conversation took place. The employee didn’t have permission to hang the poster without her approval, she said, and restaurant leadership is concerned such posters could make the business and its staff a target for law enforcement.

“We’re talking with our neighbors and our landlord and our team about what is the right message that represents where our boundaries are and how we can provide a safe space for our crew and for our guests,” Blaine said.

Provisions also responded to the situation in a statement on the restaurant’s website.

“We welcome immigrants to our businesses — as guests and as employees. Full stop,” Provisions’ statement reads. “We are committed to providing a safe space for them, and find the current wave of anti-immigrant action abhorrent.”

Reddit moderators took down the original Reddit thread sometime between Wednesday night and Thursday morning, though it has since been reposted on other social media platforms.

One moderator said they removed the post because Provisions employees reached out with complaints of death threats. Blaine declined to provide specifics to Lookout, but said the business has received “profane and abusive emails and phone calls” that have not been reported to the police.

Another moderator said they removed the post because it was “unsourced and potentially misinformation.”

“The screenshots don’t demonstrate that it’s even ICE,” one moderator wrote. “Eugene has a DHS branch here, with FEMA, TSA, and other non-ICE agents working out of it.”

Commenters responded to both explanations with frustration, some calling for the moderators’ resignation.

On Thursday, in a newly created thread, the author of the now-deleted Reddit post shared two screenshots of Provisions’ internal employee group chat. They capture a message sent by Blaine, the Marché CEO, to staff members on Wednesday addressing “Reddit chatter” about Provisions and ICE agents.

Blaine confirmed the screenshots’ authenticity.

She wrote in the message to staff that a group of DHS personnel come into Provisions for coffee, adding that they are “well-behaved guests” and their actions have never been disruptive. Provisions leadership is “reaching out to [the DHS personnel] to talk about their impact on other guests,” Blaine wrote.

Blaine told Lookout on Thursday that she didn’t have specifics to share about that communication, as the business doesn’t yet have a form of “direct contact” with the department.

Blaine also said in her message to staff that management has measures in place to protect employees from ICE action, and the business will refuse service to disruptive guests.

“We’re a woman-owned, independent small business that supports progressive causes,” Blaine told Lookout. “We’re horrified by some of the behavior of ICE in this country writ large, but it’s difficult to know how to speak to it, and how to protect your crew without creating more targeting.”