After ICE took out nine employees and four of the family members that owned the place a couple of days ago, the restaurant has shut down. Business is off in the surrounding area as well, as many don't want to shop or show up for work for fear of a repeat action.
This is unconscionable: clearly, such gestapo tactics are disrupting the very fabric of the economy. And think of the families that are torn apart by such actions! It must be remembered that these are poor, hard-working people who are only here to do the jobs that Americans won't do. That line's been repeated so often that it must be true. Clearly, this sort of thing must stop.
"There's much hubbub right now because of what happened," Juan Lopez, 27, of Wheaton said in Spanish. "There are many people who don't want to return to work, because they think immigration will come back."
Federal agents arrested four members of the family that owns the popular restaurant with two locations in the Washington area. Francisco Carlos Solano, 55, and his wife, Inés Solano, 59, of Germantown; Consuelo Solano, 69, of Arlington County; and Juan Faustino Solano, 57, of Kensington were charged with employing and harboring illegal immigrants, money laundering and structuring deposits to avoid financial reporting requirements. The Solanos housed some of their workers in two homes in Kensington and Wheaton, according to an affidavit.
Nine others were taken into custody and face deportation proceedings.
Kind of tugs at your heartstrings, doesn't it?