Featured Image Credit: Lourdes Balduque/Getty Images
Topics: Restaurants and bars, US Food
Ben Williams
Topics: Restaurants and bars, US Food
For years, a small Arizona restaurant group built a loyal following on generous plates, lively dining rooms, and a reputation for running each new opening much like a family affair.
Regulars praised the consistency from branch to branch, a result of seasoned staff moving between locations to ensure everything ran smoothly. The chain, launched in 2008 by the Ramos Mora brothers, became known across the region for its margaritas, vibrant decor, and hearty Mexican dishes.
Behind the scenes, however, managers had been grappling with a familiar challenge for many mom-and-pop operations: hiring, training, and retaining enough staff to keep pace with busy service.
According to its director of operations, the owners never had the budget to enroll in systems like E-Verify, instead relying on identification paperwork provided by employees during hiring.
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The restaurant group had reportedly never been contacted by federal agencies prior to this month.
The situation shifted abruptly when a multi-agency operation drew sudden attention to the chain, Taco Giro, culminating in a series of coordinated raids on workers’ homes.
It was here that the chain’s troubles got worse: dozens of employees were detained by immigration authorities, forcing the restaurant group to shut most of its 10 locations.
In total, 46 workers were swept up during the operation (around 10 percent of Taco Giro’s workforce), an ICE spokesman later stating that those detained were illegal Mexican migrants. Agents also entered at least one of the restaurants to verify documentation.
Reported by The Daily Mail, director of operations Cesar Rodriguez told local reporters: “Basically, they corralled everyone in the homes where they were living, which was a couple of houses. And they came into the establishment to verify documentation and some questioning items what they were investigating on and pretty much that was it.”
One site, located at the Country Club of Green Valley, lost around six employees.
Rodriguez added: “The accusation is they were paying the employees that were undocumented cash under the table.” He also said officials had taken materials as part of an audit, explaining: “There were a lot of false allegations that we were drug smuggling and child trafficking…It was just ridiculous.”
As a result, the fallout was brutal. Seven restaurants were forced to close, with only three able to reopen after rapid rehiring efforts. Rodriguez said he hoped the remaining locations could return ‘little by little’ as new staff were brought in and trained.
The raids also made headlines after Rep. Adelita Grijalva claimed she was pepper-sprayed while approaching agents, later appearing with red blotches on her skin and calling the incident ‘very scary, very scary.’