San Diego lawmakers angry over armed ICE raid on South Park restaurant
Rep Juan Vargas speaks to media outside the federal courthouse in downtown San Diego Photo by JW August Times of San Diego San Diego lawmakers reacted with fury Monday to last weekend s armed ICE raid on a popular South Park restaurant accusing the federal leadership of heavy-handed tactics in assistance of arbitrary arrest goals Why were ICE agents armed to the teeth as if they were entering a war zone storming restaurants petitioned Rep Juan Vargas at a press conference on the actions of the federal courthouse downtown Vargas was joined by Reps Mike Levin Sara Jacobs and Scott Peters as well as Mayors Todd Gloria of San Diego and Paloma Aguirre of Imperial Beach city councilmembers and other lawmakers Vargas criticized federal magistrate Judge Karen Crawford for signing the warrant leading to the raid and demanded a meeting with her boss Judge Cynthia Bashant who became chief judge in January And that s why we re here because we re pissed off and we re not going to allow this to happen Vargas explained On Friday ICE raided the popular Buona Forchetta restaurant as Friday evening dining was beginning Specific to armed agents handcuffed the entire staff while looking for employees named in the warrant Eventually four were removed for not having identification and later identified by Vargas as three Mexicans and a Columbian Late Monday the sealed warrant and its supporting affidavit were distributed The affidavit contained the information that the magistrate reviewed before deciding if there was probable cause to issue a warrant But it turns out the information was four years old The restaurant apparently came to the attention of ICE in November after Homeland Safety received a tip accusing Buona Forchetta for alleged employment of undocumented immigrants and labor exploitation The tipster shared that the restaurant s owner was knowingly employing both undocumented immigrants and individuals not authorized to work in the United States The tipster claimed the owner was exploiting these employees by having them work - to -hour shifts with no breaks On May and ICE began developing surveillance of the restaurant more than four years after the tipster first contacted Homeland Safeguard Agents watched and identified a number of employees they assumed were violating immigration laws including one man which the affidavit says used fraudulent identity documents to gain employment at Buona Forchetta Here is how the charges were described in the warrant Peters wondered how scary it must have been to be guests having dinner at the restaurant watching armed ICE agents sweeping in from all sides People must have thought wow there must be MS- here or specific drug kingpin maybe someone like El Chapo s at the bar he announced but No they took four people away dishwashers busboys maybe a cook Levin noted the issue lies with Washington and the Trump White House He announced Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller is putting pressure on ICE demanding people be arrested daily by administration agents Setting an arbitrary quota is what created a mess like what we saw on Friday and it will continue unless we all speak out against it he revealed Jacobs revealed that over the past week the immigration enforcement tactics we ve seen in San Diego have crossed a new line This isn t about going after criminals They re going after people who are trying to do the right thing and people who are contributing to our financial system The raid upset the usually quiet intown neighborhood and the group has been very supportive of the restaurant The business issued a report earlier Monday saying they are closing all locations Monday and Tuesday adding that we are heartbroken and the situation left a mark on us
