buffalo <u+2014> immigration enforcement agents were supposed to be targeting the restaurant owner. but antonio ramos salazar, a cook, was the one with guns pointed at his head. one morning last month the officers burst through the back door at la divina , a no-frills mexican market and taco counter in suburban buffalo, capping a two-year investigation into the labor practices of the restaurant<u+2019>s owner, sergio mucino. according to the authorities, mr. mucino, 42, a legal permanent resident from mexico city, along with two associates, had been harboring undocumented workers in homes around buffalo, transporting them to jobs at his restaurants and paying them off the books. mr. mucino was arrested at his home on oct. 18. but two dozen of his workers were swept up in simultaneous raids that morning at all four of his restaurants. it amounted to one of the largest immigration workplace sweeps in recent years . in the days after the presidential election, immigrant rights advocates and supporters of immigration restriction alike wondered whether these raids were a preview of the stricter enforcement policies that president-elect donald j. trump promised during his campaign. the sweeps hark back to the workplace actions of president george w. bush<u+2019>s administration, and deviated significantly from the department of homeland security <u+2019>s longstanding enforcement strategy of avoiding roundups of unauthorized workers and instead targeting abusive employers. during the raids, the authorities discovered that nine workers had re-entered the country after having been deported, which is a federal crime. three more, including mr. salazar, were charged with immigration violations <u+2014> which are administrative offenses only <u+2014> and were ordered deported. the remaining 10 workers were released. <u+201c>the targets of the investigation were the employers,<u+201d> a homeland security spokesman, khaalid walls, said. <u+201c>after investigating the case, we alleged that many of the employees were either subject to criminal charges or immigration violations, and we charged accordingly.<u+201d> camille mackler, the legal director of the new york immigration coalition , which oversees immigrant advocacy groups, said, <u+201c>there<u+2019>s always collateral damage in a criminal investigation, but the workers in this case are victims.<u+201d> now, ms. mackler added, workers and advocates fear that this could be the blueprint for future raids under mr. trump <u+2014> <u+201c>and that would be on the small side.<u+201d> mr. trump pledged that in his first year in office he would deport unauthorized immigrants with criminal records, putting their number at two million, while increasing enforcement operations to deal with an undocumented population of more than 11 million people in the united states. <u+201c>i don<u+2019>t see mr. trump as the kind of individual who is going to make such a large promise and neglect to keep it,<u+201d> said tom bauerle , a buffalo native and conservative talk show host on wben, who voted for mr. trump. <u+201c>i expect the law to be enforced.<u+201d> mr. bauerle said that after the raids the radio station received numerous comments from listeners cheering the actions by immigration and customs enforcement . <u+201c>at the same time,<u+201d> he added, <u+201c>they are disappointed because apparently these places made awesome tacos.<u+201d> the authorities said the raids were set in motion more than two years ago, thanks, in part, to a tip from a former employee who was fired. according to the workers and their lawyers, mr. mucino paid weekly salaries for 11-hour days that worked out to be below the minimum hourly wage of $9. two workers interviewed said salaries started at $450 a week for a dishwasher and increased at different positions in the kitchen. the federal complaint stated that each restaurant grossed $50,000 per week, which was not reported for state or federal taxes. the authorities said mr. mucino operated some of the business on the books, endorsing payroll checks to 28 employees. <u+201c>building and supporting a business through the intentional use of people not lawfully authorized to work here is a model that h.s.i. will not tolerate,<u+201d> said kevin sibley, the acting special agent in charge of the homeland security investigations office in buffalo. he added that such practices undermine competition and <u+201c>often come at the peril of the workers.<u+201d> but the united states attorney<u+2019>s office for the western district of new york did not charge mr. mucino or his associates with human trafficking, nor have tax evasion or labor violation charges been filed. nicole hallett, a university at buffalo law professor who is representing three workers in their immigration cases, called the government<u+2019>s actions counterintuitive. <u+201c>if you are concerned about the exploitation of workers, you should not be prosecuting or deporting worker victims, because that discourages workers from coming forward in situations where they are being exploited,<u+201d> professor hallett said. in interviews, four workers said they were not mistreated at the restaurants. they noted that the pay was better than that at agricultural or factory jobs they held previously. mr. salazar, the head cook at la divina, is now wearing an electronic ankle monitor as he awaits deportation proceedings, though he is charged only with a civil offense. <u+201c>if this is just from being here to work,<u+201d> mr. salazar said, speaking in spanish through an interpreter, <u+201c>what would happen if i actually committed a crime?<u+201d> he said he had earned a law degree in mexico, but was unable to find work there to support his family of three. sergio roblero, 19, said he had paid a recruiter in mexico $4,480 for a guest worker<u+2019>s visa and travel expenses to pick blueberries in georgia. he was told he would be making $10.59 an hour; he made only $3, he said. mr. roblero was unable to leave the farm unless he paid $1,000 to get his passport back. to recoup his losses, he moved four months ago to buffalo, where a friend from mexico was working for mr. mucino<u+2019>s restaurants. <u+201c>i<u+2019>m afraid that other people are going to go through what i did,<u+201d> mr. roblero said. <u+201c>i know that the economy in mexico is always going to be bad and people are always going to come to this country.<u+201d> according to statistics from 2014 released this month by the pew research center, nearly eight million undocumented people in the united states were part of the work force or seeking employment. in new york state, undocumented immigrants represented 6 percent of the labor force. while some of his workers are still detained, mr. mucino was released on $85,000 bail and reopened la divina, though his other restaurants, which are full service, remain closed. mr. mucino parked a black mercedes sport utility vehicle behind the store last week and spoke of his employees. <u+201c>all of them are very nice people and they<u+2019>re hard workers,<u+201d> he said. <u+201c>i feel very bad for everything that happened.<u+201d> he declined to comment further on the charges. according to the authorities, an incident in august accelerated the investigation. fourteen men went to play basketball after their shifts around 10 p.m., at a suburban buffalo playground. the local police answered a call about the group and asked for identification. when some of the men could produce only mexican identification cards, the police called the united states border patrol. by 1:30 a.m., 10 people were detained and five were arrested, charged with having illegally re-entered the country. later, a manager, manguin sanchez, a united states citizen, went to collect the men<u+2019>s cash, which had been seized by immigration officers, and told the authorities it was their pay. according to the federal complaint, he also said restaurant workers lived in properties he owned. it was confirmation for investigators. in addition to mr. sanchez, 22, and mr. mucino, the authorities arrested another manager, jose sanchez-ocampo, 37. the men provided two houses and nine apartments for their employees<u+2019> housing. leticia and saul sanchez-ocampo <u+2014> jose sanchez-ocampo<u+2019>s brother <u+2014> live in one house, along with four children, all of whom are united states citizens. ms. sanchez-ocampo, who had started working with her husband at la divina only two days before the raids, said the family moved in 2015 from los angeles to buffalo to be closer to relatives. her daughter, magali, 17, is the best student in the family, she said, and had saved more than $9,000 in cash for her college fund. it was confiscated by immigration and customs enforcement officers during a raid of the house. <u+201c>it<u+2019>s been like a nightmare for the whole family,<u+201d> ms. sanchez-ocampo said in spanish, through an interpreter. the workers have received support from local churches, community organizations and a national workers<u+2019> rights group, movimiento cosecha , which organized several protests in buffalo. some buffalo residents have put aside questions of immigration policy and the exploitation of immigrant labor in favor of their taste buds. since opening in 2015, la divina has drawn rave reviews and long lines for its authentic, overstuffed $2.50 tacos. gaetano augello, 60, acknowledged that he felt uncomfortable hearing that workers might have been taken advantage of. <u+201c>of course, who wants to subsidize that? that<u+2019>s not a feel-good story,<u+201d> he said. but he had returned for the tacos. and now that mr. mucino has hired replacement cooks to make the recipes? <u+201c>i don<u+2019>t know if they<u+2019>re quite as good,<u+201d> mr. augello said. <u+201c>they<u+2019>re good, don<u+2019>t get me wrong.<u+201d> a version of this article appears in print on november 12, 2016, on page a22 of the new york edition with the headline: restaurateur was target, but workers are swept up in immigration raid. order reprints | today's paper | subscribe
owner was target, but restaurant workers are swept up in immigration raids
liz robbins