“You are NOT welcome at Fatty Lumpkins Sandwich Shack. You NEVER will be,” reads the post on Fatty Lumpkins’ Facebook page.
MUSKEGON, Mich. — A Muskegon restaurant says it will no longer serve agents with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), telling them to “stay away.”
Fatty Lumpkins Sandwich Shack, a staple in the Muskegon community, posted on Facebook Wednesday night that ICE agents had previously come into the restaurant for lunch “somewhat regularly.”
“Hated it then but now it’s past that. We take a stand against you. Openly. Your presence was neither welcomed nor safe. Ever,” the post said.
This comes after an ICE agent shot and killed a woman in Minneapolis on Wednesday, spurring nationwide protests and pushback against immigration enforcement. In Grand Rapids, dozens of demonstrators gathered and urged for sanctuary city policies, with more rallies planned.
The strongly-worded post from Fatty Lumpkins is the latest in local reaction to the Trump administration’s sweeping immigration enforcement.
“Do not EVER set foot in this establishment without a warrant. You will be denied service. You will be laughed at and escorted out. We will immediately call 911 the second I see anything resembling your presence on our private property,” the post reads.
While the post received backlash from commenters, others showed support for the business.
13 ON YOUR SIDE spoke with co-owner Brett Gilbert the day after the post. The business has been around for 14 years, and he said his grandfather and dad used to own the restaurant.
“As a business owner, the conventional wisdom is like, you don’t express your views about not just politics, but a lot of things. And that’s always bothered me,” Brett Gilbert. “I think the community knows who we are at this point and kind of what we stand for along these lines. And so it just felt like the right thing to do.”
Gilbert said his team tripled the amount of business they do in a typical day on Thursday.
“We sold out of almost everything. We had to send someone to get as much as we normally get for a day, and we blew through that the second time. So it was a very busy day today,” Gilbert said.
