ICE detainments shake Rochester restaurant and larger community
ROCHESTER, Minn. — Federal immigration officials are in Minnesota this week and WCCO has learned of at least two men who were detained in Rochester.
Ted Paizis, the owner of the restaurant Nupa, says Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials detained two of his cooks in Nupa's parking lot when they arrived at work Wednesday morning.
The restaurant was closed Thursday, with only the second location open.
"You lose a couple employees, it really affects the operation," Paizis said. "They became part of our family, and they're going to be missed. It's saddening it happened this way."
He says the cooks are brothers who may have been working under false documentation.
"They were working, paying their taxes, paid Social Security, Medicare," Paizis said. "No criminal records that we know of."
In response to the detainments, and all immigration enforcement activities in the city, protesters braved subzero wind chills downtown.
"We're gathering to make sure that ICE knows they're not welcome here and Rochester's a place of love and support," said Ryan Perez of COPAL Minnesota, a nonprofit dedicated to helping Latino communities.
One of the protesters, Pablo Sgaki, was a U.S. citizen born in Mexico.
"I myself, as an immigrant before, knows what it's like to live in fear sometimes," he said. "America is immigrants. Look at our forefathers. We were founded based on an immigrant foundation."
Perez and other protest organizers are working to get in contact with the detained Nupa employees to support them.
"It's a very sad and frustrating thing, and it's a time for action," he said.
Rochester police say they were made aware of ICE operations in the city but did not assist.
Paizis says between the rally and social media comments, the support from the community has been remarkable during what he says is a time of mourning for the Nupa family.
Rochester Mayor Kim Norton told WCCO the detainments are "hard to swallow."
She says many of the city's immigrants have lived and worked there for years without so much as a parking ticket.
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