Feride Bardakci worked three restaurant jobs in Jackson. The 26-year-old from Turkey was on her way from a morning shift at Picnic cafe to her evening job at Teton Tiger on Tuesday afternoon when U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested her at a bus stop.
Officers wore visible badges that said “ICE,” an unnamed Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said via email. Other than the badges, officers wore plain clothes, according to bystander reports posted online. The spokesperson said Bardakci resisted arrest.
As officers handcuffed her and put her into a vehicle for transport to Casper, Bardakci yelled out the name of her manager and asked someone to let her know she would miss her shift, said Teton Tiger General Manager Monica Rozzi.
Rozzi got a phone call from Teton Area Rapid Response Network – a newly formed hotline about ICE activities — with a report from a bystander.
“My heart dropped,” said Rozzi. “It’s just shocking and scary because she’s definitely a friend to all of us, and she’s a wonderful person and not somebody I would consider a danger to society.”
Rozzi said she was unaware that ICE would have any reason to pursue Bardakci, whom she hired about five months ago.
The targeted street-level operation marked a departure from how ICE usually works in Teton County. Under the second Trump administration, ICE has picked up about 200 people from the county jail. Most were first arrested for driving-related offenses, a May KHOL analysis found.
“This is a shift in tactic, it appears, that ICE is now going to stop people on the street,” said Jackson immigration attorney Elisabeth Trefonas. She advised other immigrants to get their documents in order.
A leadership team member from the Persephone and Picnic cafe team declined to comment. Coworkers say she also worked for Annie’s Thai Kitchen, which could not be reached for comment in time for this story.
A search of state and federal courts did not return a criminal record. Reports show Bardakci is now in Natrona County jail. Bardakci was targeted for overstaying her yearlong visa, which she first obtained in 2023.
“In violation of our nation’s laws, she overstayed her welcome and refused to depart. Bardakci will receive due process and remain in ICE custody pending the outcome of her immigration proceedings,” the statement from DHS said. “Being in detention is a choice. We encourage all illegal aliens to take control of their departure with the CBP Home App.”
It’s common for many young Jackson hospitality workers to have arrived on a J-1 student visa, as Bardakci did.
“I bet if you walked into any restaurant right now and asked how many of them had J-1s when they first got here, if they weren’t born here, you’d get an overwhelming percentage, if not all of them,” Trefonas said.
Teton County Sheriff Matt Carr said he’s never seen such a publicly visible operation without any advance notice to local law enforcement, which he described as a violation of protocol. DHS did not respond to a question about the lack of notice.
Bardakci will likely be transferred to a detention center in Aurora, Colorado, Trefonas said.
Many of Trefonas’ other clients have been denied bond and deemed a flight risk, forcing lawyers to use habeas corpus to try for release, she said. If a release is secured, cases can still take two to 10 years to process.
WyoFile contributed editing to this report. — Ed.
