The local Mexican restaurant chain in Pennsylvania is about to move forward a week ago when workplace immigrants at the two storefronts left property damage and the workforce was afraid to get their jobs, according to witnesses who spoke with two employees and NBC News.
It began on August 7th when the Immigration Bureau appeared at two Emiliano Mexican restaurants and bar locations in the Pittsburgh area. As many as 16 workers were detained. The nine worked at Gibsonia location north of Pittsburgh.
A social media post containing videos filmed by workers accused the business of assaulting the restaurant, leaving behind a “path of fear, confusion and destruction” that includes burning kitchens, torn ceiling tiles, torn doors and safe cuts by agents. The incident raises questions about the tactics used by authorities in this particular attack.
According to two people working at the restaurant chain, this week, gas plumbers fixed a stove that was damaged during the attack. They added that as employees witnessed the attack, including those who were US citizens, remained “shocked” where immigration officials targeted. “No one wants to go back, everyone is scared.”
Both workers who spoke with NBC News requested that they be named to protect family privacy due to an ongoing federal investigation in connection with last week’s event.
The U.S. Lawyer’s Office for the Western District of Pennsylvania declined to clarify what the investigation it is leading.
Last week, someone warned the emergency immigration hotline run by Casa San Jose, a local nonprofit organization defending Latino and immigrant communities.
According to Jaime Martinez, community defense organizer at CASA San Jose, the organization acted as legal observers, sending around 20 volunteers to both locations to gather testimony and provide support to affected workers and families.
At a Givenia location, “The raid actually caused a fire in the kitchen and people were put in danger because agents couldn’t go out first,” Martinez told NBC News on Tuesday.
An employee who spoke to Martinez and his volunteers said the stove was on as agents entered the kitchen as workers were ready to open the restaurant on Thursday morning were cooking food. The restaurant manager warned the agents that the open burner was on, but witnesses claimed that the agent did nothing until the fire broke out, he said.
According to an employee who spoke with Martinez and his volunteers, the detained employee, with arms and ankles bound, was the one who instructed the agent to find a fire extinguisher and initially instructed them how to use it after the operation failed.
“By the time the fire station got there, the fire had already been issued with dry chemical fire extinguishers, but only after this delay,” Martinez said.
A spokesman with the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency told NBC News in an email Thursday that “damage to the restaurant, including a small fire, was created by illegal aliens themselves while trying to escape from law enforcement officials.”
According to ICE, agents appeared at Givenia and Cranberry locations and executed a federal search warrant based on information that claimed the restaurant was hiring undocumented workers. The agency added that it lacked legal status in which 16 people were detained and detained, and is currently under ice custody and is filing an immigration lawsuit.
“But in the process of bringing that warrant, they also terrified the community, pointed guns at people, and destroyed local businesses,” Martinez said.
In response, an ICE spokesperson told NBC News that “all agents and officers followed established legal procedures while carrying out the warrants.”
At the Cranberry location, a Casa San Jose volunteer interviewed a worker who explained that he saw officers come to the restaurant and scream “police” and pointing a long gun at an employee. One female employee in the kitchen said the agent “pointed the gun at her head,” but according to Martinez, she told her to stop cooking.
She was not taken into custody after showing proper documents, but “the woman has to live with the trauma of law enforcement pointing a gun at her head while she is at work,” Martinez said.
One worker who spoke to Martinez and NBC News said that agents lined up all the cuff employees and kneeled while pointing to the weapon.
“Agents and officers have worked within established law enforcement standards to ensure the safety of law enforcement officers, citizens and illegal aliens themselves,” an ICE spokesman said in response to the allegations.
Last week it wasn’t the first time immigration authorities tried to detain an employee from Emiliano’s Mexican restaurant and bar. An ICE spokesman confirmed to NBC News that the June incident was part of an investigation that “finally led to the execution of the warrant.”
Martinez said he called the hotline on a June night and reported an unmarked vehicle surrounding a nearby apartment. When dispatched volunteers arrived in the area, she noticed that the vehicle was parked with engines still running in front and behind the restaurant.
According to Martinez, it appeared that federal agents in the vehicle were waiting for workers to come out of the restaurant while the store was closed. When the TV crew arrived at the scene, the vehicle remained, he said.
“The restaurant had nine people during lockdown,” Martinez said. His group added that he doesn’t know the immigration situation for those workers because he doesn’t ask people about it as part of its policy. “But you don’t have to be undocumented to be afraid of being detained.”
Since launching the hotline in March, CASA San Jose has received more than 650 calls, reporting more than 100 immigrant detention in the area and dispatching volunteers in at least 70 instances, according to Martinez.
The community came together and collectively donated more than $133,000 in the wake of Emiliano’s attack at Mexican restaurant and bar locations. A worker who spoke with NBC News said the business plans to use the funds to cover bond costs, as well as repair the damage that was done to the restaurant.
