The owner of a Peruvian food restaurant in New Mexico was surprised last month by three agents of the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement Service (ICE) , who asked him to see immigration documents, The Taos News reported Thursday.
At first, Trotsky Barreto thought that they were tourists since they did not wear badges. They asked for documents and permission to search the premises, highlights the newspaper.
Barreto had nothing to hide, because he had just opened the business and had no help from employees. Before accessing the officers’ request, Barreto asked them to see IDs: they were from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
The arrival of the agents to the commerce complies with an order of the federal government to arrest undocumented workers and sanction the owners of the businesses that employ them; the practice has expanded in several parts of the country, especially in the border areas, since Donald Trump took office.
There were no arrests at Barreto’s restaurant that day, but the surprise visit by ICE has created an atmosphere of tension and uncertainty for both merchants and immigrants who live in the country without legal residence, The Taos News reported.
The immigration agency, meanwhile, limited itself to remembering that “in accordance with the regulations established by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Service (ICE), we can not make statements about ongoing and future programs of the agency. ICE regularly executes operations in workplaces in order to enforce federal law. ”
Juana loves to cover the tech and gaming industry, she always stays on the first row of CES conference and reports live from there.