San Diego lawmakers reacted with fury Monday to last weekend’s armed ICE raid on a popular South Park restaurant, accusing the federal government of heavy-handed tactics in support of arbitrary arrest goals.
“Why were ICE agents armed to the teeth as if they were entering a war zone, storming restaurants?” asked Rep. Juan Vargas at a press conference on the steps 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 said.
On Friday ICE raided the popular Buona Forchetta restaurant as Friday evening dining was beginning. Some 20 to 25 armed agents handcuffed the entire staff while looking for 19 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 released. 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 2020, after Homeland Security received a tip accusing Buona Forchetta for alleged employment of undocumented immigrants and labor exploitation.
The tipster reported 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 12- to 24-hour shifts with no breaks.
On May 22 and 23, ICE began active surveillance of the restaurant, more than four years after the tipster first contacted Homeland Security. Agents watched and identified a number of employees they believed 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 allegations 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-13 here or some drug kingpin, maybe someone like El Chapo’s at the bar,” he said, but “No — they took four people away, dishwashers, busboys, maybe a cook.”
Levin said the issue lies with Washington and the Trump White House. He said Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller is putting pressure on ICE, demanding 3,000 people be arrested daily by government 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 said.
Jacobs said 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 economy.”
The raid upset the usually quiet intown neighborhood and the community has been very supportive of the restaurant. The business issued a statement earlier Monday saying they are closing all locations Monday and Tuesday, adding that “we are heartbroken” and the incident “left a mark on us.”
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