The Trump supporter’s namesake restaurant closed its kitchen during citywide ICE raids over fears that staffers would be detained
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NEED TO KNOW
- Kid Rock’s restaurant reportedly closed over the weekend to avoid ICE’s raids in Nashville.
- Immigrant employees either did not show up for work or were told to go home, to avoid being detained by ICE.
- ICE arrested 196 people in the city raid — less than half of whom have prior criminal records.
Kid Rock‘s Nashville restaurant halted service amid fears that it would be raided by Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Saturday, May 10.
The Nashville-based musician, a longtime supporter of Donald Trump, reportedly had the doors of his namesake restaurant — Kid Rock’s Big A** Honky Tonk Rock N’ Roll Steakhouse — closed, per Nashville Scene. The move came after employees without U.S. work authorization did not show up for work on Saturday, and those who did show were told to go home in order to avoid ICE detention.
The singer has a long history with Trump himself. Kid Rock visited Trump in the White House in 2017, golfed with Trump (while wearing American flag pants) in 2019 and recently performed at the president’s Make America Great Again Victory Rally to celebrate Inauguration Day.
Kid Rock’s restaurant, as well as two others in Nashville that were also shut down over the weekend, are owned by Steve Smith — a conservative restaurateur and Trump supporter, the outlet reported.
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Officials from the immigration agency were present in Nashville on Saturday, joining forces with Tennessee Highway Patrol to intercept immigrants lacking permanent legal status, ICE revealed on May 13.
The presence was part of “a weeklong targeted enforcement operation,” per ICE’s news release, and allegedly sought to remove immigrants “who pose a threat to public safety.”
According to ICE’s data, less than half of the detainees had prior criminal records. A total of 196 people were arrested, the news release stated.
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Due to the extensive ICE presence, many employees who are immigrants opted to call out of work, so as not to be detained while traveling to or from work.
“We were already understaffed because of the ICE raids throughout the weekend,” an employee of one of the three restaurants, who asked to remain anonymous, told Nashville Scene. “Then, around 9:30 p.m. on Saturday, our manager came back and told anyone without legal status to go home.”
