'Lives shattered': Emiliano's vows to reopen after feds seize 16 in immigration raid
Federal immigration agents took 16 people into custody Thursday during coordinated raids at Emiliano’s restaurant locations in the North Hills and Butler County.
The agents, led by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, were executing “federal court-authorized search warrants” in response to information that the two restaurants were “employing illegal aliens,” according to the agency.
They found 16 people who were illegally in the U.S., the agency said. Those people were taken into custody. Immigration proceedings against them are underway, according to ICE.
In a social media post later in the day, the restaurant claimed law enforcement caused property damage and failed to display a warrant.
An ICE spokesperson declined comment on the restaurant’s claims.
Accompanying ICE in the raids were members of the FBI, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the U.S. Marshals Service, the IRS and the Social Security Administration Office of Inspector General.
Jaime Martinez, a community activist with Casa San Jose, a Pittsburgh-based Latino advocacy organization, was on the scene at the Richland location at Richland Mall and told TribLive about 12 people were arrested there.
Several others were taken from the restaurant’s Cranberry location, according to Martinez.
Martinez said officers from the Department of Homeland Security, local police and the FBI carried rifles and battering rams.
“They scared everyone to death,” he said.
Employees from the Richland location who were not arrested reported property damage inside the restaurant and a fire that started in the kitchen, according to Martinez.
Martinez told TribLive there were three fire trucks on scene about 12:30 p.m.
In a post on Emiliano’s Instagram account early Thursday afternoon, video showed damage from the raid inside one of the locations.
The footage showed ceiling tiles pulled down, wires hanging and an agent rummaging through what appears to be a tool box. One agent captured in the video had FBI written on the back of his jacket.
‘They didn’t show me any warrant when they came in,” a woman can be heard saying. “They didn’t show me nothing.”
The video is accompanied by a message: “What you saw on the news doesn’t tell the full story.
“On Thursday, federal agents stormed our restaurants in a show of force that went far beyond anything reasonable or humane. 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 post went on to say the kitchens were flipped, walk-ins emptied, food trashed, doors broken.
“Lives shattered. But what they can’t destroy is who we are.”
It continued: “At Emiliano’s, we’ve always been more than a restaurant. We’re a family — and like many restaurants in this country, we are built on the backs of immigrants. We will not apologize for that.”
The post goes on to say the restaurant will stand by its team and work with legal experts and community partners to help the people impacted.
“And we will not stay silent while fear and intimidation tear through our community,” it said. “We will reopen. We will rebuild. And we will keep feeding this city with love, dignity and purpose.”
It was signed “The Emiliano’s Family.”
The raids began about 11 a.m. Martinez said that’s when he got a call that immigration officials were at the Richland restaurant. The operation started at Cranberry about the same time, he said.
Martinez said there were about 20 volunteers on hand at the Richland location to serve as witnesses and be able to document it.
“We’re here to stand in support of the people being detained, and bring our humanity to a situation that is not humane,” Martinez said.
Another immigration action occurred a week ago in Beaver County in which at least 10 people were arrested in the vicinity of Monroy Super Market, a store in Ambridge that specializes in Latin American, South American and Caribbean products.
In June, 14 people were arrested for immigration violations at Tepache Mexican Kitchen & Bar in Marshall.
Emiliano’s Mexican Restaurant and Bar, which opened in 2007, according to its website, also has locations in Bethel Park and in Pittsburgh’s South Side.
Paula Reed Ward is a TribLive reporter covering federal and Allegheny County courts. She joined the Trib in 2020 after spending nearly 17 years at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, where she was part of a Pulitzer Prize-winning team. She is the author of "Death by Cyanide." She can be reached at pward@triblive.com.
Remove the ads from your TribLIVE reading experience but still support the journalists who create the content with TribLIVE Ad-Free.