Eater, a major food-news outlet, says it won’t publish lists of immigrant-owned food establishments because it fears that any such lists could fall into the wrong hands. According to a statement on the outlet’s website, Eater readers have written in asking for recommendations of immigrant-owned food businesses because they want to show their support in light of the threat of deportations under the Trump administration.
“We feel that it would be irresponsible to publish guides specifically highlighting restaurants owned by people whose lives and livelihoods may right now be threatened, because of the very real possibility that they would double as cheat sheets to help intolerant actors find new people, businesses, and families to target,” Eater said.
Eater encouraged its readers to go out and look for immigrant-owned restaurants and food businesses on their own: “Restaurants and other food-based businesses are among the largest employers of immigrants in America, and spending your money there is a simple and direct way of supporting people who, while always in a vulnerable position, right now may be in crisis.
In an interview on 60 Minutes, Donald Trump stepped back from his original vow to deport all illegal aliens, and said he will instead focus deportations on illegal immigrants with a criminal background. “What we are going to do is get the people that are criminal and have criminal records, gang members, drug dealers,” he said. “We have a lot of these people, probably 2 million, it could be even 3 million; we are getting them out of our country or we’re going to incarcerate.”
That number is likely inflated, however. “In 2012, Homeland Security officials estimated some 1.9 million criminal immigrants in the United States who could be deported. But the government didn’t break down how many of those people were in the country legally and how many were here illegally,” according to Business Insider.