A.R., an undocumented chef from Mexico, was startled last week when armed federal immigration agents descended on his restaurant in Buffalo, New York to round up workers. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents said they had a warrant to search the restaurant. A coworker complied and opened the door, but A.R. said that they used guns and dogs to force workers to the ground.
Agents briefly detained A.R. before letting him go with regular supervision. Agents also arrested 21 workers and three owners at three other Mexican restaurants in the area. They are now awaiting deportation proceedings.
“We all cooperated,” A.R., who asked to keep his full name anonymous, recounted to ThinkProgress through a Spanish-language interpreter. “We all did what the agents asked us to do and they still treated us badly.”
The mass arrest of immigrants stems from a two-year long investigation into the three Mexican restaurant owners who are accused of harboring undocumented immigrants and evading taxes. During the raid, agents also seized nine apartments and two houses where dozens of restaurant workers lived. Only a few of the restaurant workers received payroll checks, but undocumented workers were paid between $500 and $800 in cash every week.
Since last week’s raid, some immigrant workers like A.R. have had to do regular check-ins with the ICE office. Others were released on GPS ankle-monitoring devices. Of the 25 immigrants arrested during the raids, seven will be charged criminally for illegal re-entry — a felonious charge — and may face imminent deportation.
I have no trust in law enforcement.
Advocates see the workplace raid as a betrayal of President Barack Obama’s promise to focus enforcement resources on immigrants with serious criminal convictions. Early in his presidency, his administration began moving away from workplace raids to focus instead on “paper raids,” or auditing businesses to verify the Social Security numbers of their employees. The change in tactic came in part because of the May 2008 workplace raid in Postville, Iowa. During that raid, 1,000 immigrant agents descended on a meatpacking plant, resulting in the deportation of 300 immigrants and a $5 million bill for taxpayers.
How The Postville Immigration Raid Has Changed Deportation Proceedings Sunday will mark the fifth anniversary of one of the largest workplace immigration raids in United States history.thinkprogress.orgCarlos Rojas Rodriguez, an organizer with the immigrant rights group Movimiento Cosecha, felt that it was irresponsible of law enforcement officials to detain the Buffalo restaurant workers since state and federal agencies wanted to focus on the owners who responsible for tax evasion.
“It ended with families being separated,” Rojas Rodriguez said. “There are U.S.-born children whose passports, Social Security cards, and birth certificates that have been taken away [as part of the investigation].”
The raid’s fallout has left many people like A.R. terrified of daily encounters with local law enforcement officials.
“I have no trust in law enforcement,” A.R. said. “Before [the raid], I heard that the police are here to serve and protect, but because of my status, I don’t know that I feel protected anymore.”
In November 2014, the president announced calls for ICE officers to exercise prosecutorial discretion by declining to put certain low-level criminal immigrants into deportation proceedings, allowing them to focus on “felons, not families.” But A.R. said the Buffalo raid was not in keeping with that policy.
“[Obama] may have said [that he would pursue] felons and not families, but from what I’ve seen in Buffalo, he’s separating families, deporting people who have done nothing wrong and are working. I can’t trust [Obama’s] work. Some of my coworkers with U.S.-born children are still detained,” A.R. added.
Yet the raid could have long-term impacts in a northern border town like Buffalo, which already has a U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) presence. Now, even those agents present ominous reminders of the raid.
“It makes an already particularly vulnerable community even more likely to be targeted.”
“There is a general fear and distrust of immigration officials,” Matthew Kolken, an immigration lawyer based in Buffalo, New York, told ThinkProgress. “Members of the undocumented community in Buffalo, like other communities around the country, often are victims of crime and abuse, and are afraid to come forward to assist law enforcement due to their fears of deportation. It makes an already particularly vulnerable community even more likely to be targeted.”
Advocates aren’t happy. Eight people were arrested during a protest at the ICE field office in Buffalo in solidarity with the 25 arrested immigrants. It had been the third protest in one week, and local activists with SURJ (Showing Up For Racial Justice), the Coalition For Economic Justice, PUSH Buffalo, and Cosecha say they are planning more in coming days.
“Even though the topic of immigration has been more polarized than ever, the executive chief is Obama,” Rojas Rodriguez said. “He promised immigration reform and promised not to separate families, but what I’ve seen is pain and destruction of of stable homes.”