Please & Thank You, which has locations in Louisville, Prospect, and Indianapolis, shared a message on its Instagram page Thursday.
“PLEASE & THANK YOU is a hospitality brand with values rooted in kindness, respect, inclusion and dignity for all humanity. Hate has no place in our community, our workplaces, our future. The brutality of ICE has no place in our communities, our workplaces, our future,” the post said.
The statement followed a viral, anonymous Reddit post from two days earlier that included a screenshot of a message allegedly sent by Please & Thank You’s owner instructing employees to “leave your religion and politics at the door.” The post claimed the owner “wants their employees to serve ICE agents with a smile.”
Across the country, opposition to ICE is growing. A PBS News/NPR/Marist Poll released this week found that 65% of American adults believe the “actions of ICE have gone too far in enforcing immigration laws,” up from 54% last June.
In recent weeks, some small businesses have joined protest efforts tied to immigration enforcement operations, particularly after ICE agents killed American citizens Alex Pretti and Renee Macklin Good in Minneapolis last month.
At the end of January, hundreds of Minnesota businesses closed for a one-day strike and economic blackout to protest ICE. The movement later spread to other cities, and in Louisville, college students organized protests on campus.
For Please & Thank You, what began as an internal message to staff quickly turned into a social media controversy. Other local businesses responded with their own posts, with some stating that immigration agents would be “iced out” of their establishments.
LPM News attempted to contact Please & Thank You and owner Brooke Vaughn by phone and email but did not receive a response. According to the Courier Journal, Vaughn sent the original message to staff on Tuesday after receiving an email from a man who said he was in uniform and felt employees were giving him “evil looks.” LPM has not independently verified the incident or confirmed that the man was an ICE agent.
In the memo to staff, Vaughn wrote, “REMINDER to leave your religion and politics at the door when you come to work for PLEASE & THANK YOU. If you discriminate against anyone inside our shops, you are not meant to be a DAY MAKER and should consider a career elsewhere.”
Following the controversy, many Instagram and Facebook users left negative comments on Please & Thank You’s accounts, accusing the business of supporting ICE.
Vaughn told the Courier Journal that she disabled comments on some posts due to the backlash. Before doing so, she responded to several commenters, defending the company’s policies.
In Louisville, rumors of ICE sightings circulate frequently on social media. While there have been no mass raids reported in the city, ICE remains active, and immigration detentions have increased statewide. In December, ICE agents detained a man during his morning commute and then drove his 10-year-old daughter to school in his car, according to WDRB. Separately, proposed bills in the Kentucky General Assembly would require local and state police to cooperate with federal immigration enforcement.
In response to the Please & Thank You situation, some Louisville businesses used social media to publicly oppose ICE. Several told LPM they would not serve ICE agents.
Katy Carey, a general manager at Full Stop Station in Germantown, described Please & Thank You’s original message as “shocking.”
Full Stop was among several businesses that posted anti-ICE messages online. Carey said the goal was to clearly communicate where the business stands.
“Our response was simply to make sure it wasn’t so much about [Please & Thank You] as it was more so for us to make sure that our guests and our employees knew where we stand and that they can feel safe in their opinions with us,” Carey said.
Tastee Treats owner Emily Keller said speaking out during the controversy aligned with advocacy work she began during Louisville’s “No Kings” protests last year. On Wednesday, Keller posted a photo of a bright green cake decorated with green ribbon icing and pink roses, featuring the words “f— ice” in the center.
“I was just trying to say, ‘Hey, this is our belief, we do not support what this administration has been doing with the ICE agents in various cities,’” Keller said. “And it feels like there’s nothing you can do, but then you have to do something or say something.”
Shahar, a vegan restaurant in Shelby Park, shared an Instagram video showing an employee dramatically pulling ice cubes out of a latte.
Shahar’s owner, Christian Nava, said the post matched the restaurant’s humor-driven tone. Nava and her husband are children of immigrants, and she said the message was meant to support both their community and Louisville as a whole.
“If it wasn’t for the immigrant working class, honestly, I don’t think there’d be much of restaurants or small businesses or even bigger businesses,” she said.
Safai Coffee Shop, Whirling Tiger, and Old Louisville Coffee Co-Op also shared anti-ICE messages on social media this week.
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