Sixteen workers from Emiliano’s Mexican Restaurant and Bar went from preparing food for the lunch crowd at two local restaurants to being in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody Thursday, Aug. 7.

“It’s a terrible thing, I never thought this would happen in the United States,” said Nina Oliver, a family friend of the restaurant’s management, speaking about the detained employees who were suspected of being in the country illegally.

The owner was out of town and not present at the time of the raid.

The Mexican restaurant’s Cranberry Township and Richland Township, Allegheny County, locations, were raided by ICE late in the morning.

“They had a big white van here (in front), and they had another one out back. They loaded the one in the back first, and when I was turning around, I realized that they moved the other one to the back, so they loaded it, and they left around 12:30 p.m., maybe 1,” Oliver said while sitting in the Richland location. “It’s horrible.”

Neither she nor the remaining employees knew where those detained were taken.

By 1 p.m., the Cranberry’s Route 19 location had closed for the day. Those in the area were left confused why the doors were locked at lunch time.

At Richland’s Route 8 location, remaining workers paced around talking on their phones with friends and families. Conversations indicated they were afraid for their co-workers and trying to make sense of what had happened.

The restaurant, which has four Pittsburgh area locations, including Cranberry and Richland, posted a video to its Facebook page Thursday showing damage to the restaurant’s Richland location in the back-of-house areas.

“Federal agents stormed our restaurants in a show of force that went far beyond anything reasonable or human,” the business said in the Facebook post signed “The Emiliano’s Family.”

“They didn’t just detain people — they raided the heart of our business, tore through our spaces and left behind a trail of fear, confusion and destruction,” the restaurant’s message continued.

The business said its kitchens were flipped, its walk-in cooler and freezer emptied, its food trashed and its doors broken.

The restaurant said in the Facebook post it is standing by its staff during this time.

“We are working with legal experts and community partners to support the people impacted. And we will not stay silent while fear and intimidation tear through our community,” the restaurant said.

The post paired with a video showing at least two people surveying the damage at the Richland location.

“I’m sorry, but this is wrong,” one voice said in the video.

Oliver, speaking on behalf of the restaurant, said ovens and stove burners were left on because of how quickly ICE swept in and took the workers, causing the fire department to be called.

“They broke three locks, broken completely, they made holes in the wall, I don’t know why or how, but they trashed the place,” Oliver said.

She said the ICE agents were wearing masks and were unidentifiable, and that staff asked why they were wearing masks but were not answered.

Oliver also said staff were shown a search warrant at the end of the raid, after workers had been detained and taken away.

“They did not show it. They gave it to us last. And we asked them where they were taking all these people, and they said ‘We will tell you.’ And they didn’t tell us anything. They left and they didn’t say where they were going,” Oliver said.

Cranberry Township police chief Kevin Meyer confirmed his officers assisted in securing a perimeter around Emiliano’s Mexican Restaurant & Bar while federal officials investigated.

ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations and Enforcement and Removal Operations Pittsburgh Offices along with agents from the Drug Enforcement Administration; the Federal Bureau of Investigation; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; the United States Marshals Service; the Internal Revenue Service and the Social Security Administration Office of the Inspector General, were involved Thursday, according to an ICE spokesperson.

Butler County Sheriff Mike Slupe said Thursday his deputies were not involved in the operation as they have not yet received ICE training.

ICE said in a news release that the immigration raid included agents from various agencies carrying out federal court-authorized search warrants.

“During the execution of the search warrants, 16 individuals were encountered and found to be illegally present in the United States. These 16 individuals were taken into ICE custody and placed into immigration proceedings. As this is an ongoing investigation, no further details are available at this time,” an ICE spokesperson said in the release.

The restaurant is being assisted by Jaime Martinez, a community defense organizer with Casa San Jose, a Pittsburgh-based Latino advocacy organization. Martinez said it was possible those detained were being taken to ICE’s field office in Pittsburgh’s Southside, but it could be elsewhere.

Several workers said a GoFundMe would be created and posted to social media to raise money for the detained workers and their families, make up for their lost wages and assist with their bond hearings.

The two restaurant locations will be closed for the time being due to the loss of cooks, Oliver said.

“We will reopen. We will rebuild. And we will keep feeding this city with love, dignity and purpose,” the business said in its Facebook post.