Mexican restaurant near Cranberry Township says ICE officials raided business
A Mexican restaurant located just outside Cranberry Township is temporarily closed after it said U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers raided the business over lunchtime Wednesday, June 25.
Tepache Mexican Kitchen & Bar in Allegheny County, located just over the Butler County line, posted to Instagram and Facebook on Wednesday morning, saying ICE officials were at the restaurant.
“ICE is currently raiding our Cranberry location,” the post reads. “If you are in the area and would like to support our people, stop by to stand outside and witness. Gracias.”
By 2 p.m., the restaurant at 926 Sheraton Drive had closed its doors, its parking lot had emptied and a sign about the incident was posted on the door.
“Hola Tepache family, we are temporarily closed as we try to work through the consequences of ICE coming to our workplace on Wednesday, June 25,” the sign reads. “Please follow our social media for more information.”
A video posted around lunchtime Wednesday by a Facebook user named Jose Perez, who appears to be a restaurant employee, warns of the ICE presence from the kitchen.
People who appear to be immigration officials in the background of his video can be heard saying, “come this way,” “walk toward me” and the Spanish equivalent of “hands up.”
“They are here to take us all from Tepache … There’s nothing you can do about it,” Perez said in Spanish.
He also says we are “worthless,” in Spanish.
Apparently distressed, Perez then approaches the officials with hands raised before the 24-second video ends.
Employees of businesses around the restaurant had varied comments, with many having just seen emergency vehicles or were completely unaware of the developing situation.
One employee said he saw immigration officials loading people into police vehicles before leaving the restaurant’s parking lot.
Under President Donald Trump’s administration, which promised mass deportations, the agency ramped up the number of arrests across the country.
In May, Stephen Miller, White House deputy chief of staff and main architect of Trump’s immigration policies, said ICE officers would target at least 3,000 arrests a day, up from about 650 a day during the first five months of Trump’s second term.
In June, however, Trump advised the agency to curb enforcement at farms, meatpacking plants, hotels and restaurants. It was echoed in a post made to his Truth Social account on June 12.
“Our great Farmers and people in the Hotel and Leisure business have been stating that our very aggressive policy on immigration is taking very good, long time workers away from them, with those jobs being almost impossible to replace,” he wrote. “In many cases the Criminals allowed into our Country by the VERY Stupid Biden Open Borders Policy are applying for those jobs. This is not good. We must protect our Farmers, but get the CRIMINALS OUT OF THE USA. Changes are coming!”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
