Sheriff had no idea HSI agents were going to raid Liberty restaurant
LIBERTY, Mo. — Video from Friday morning showed Homeland Security agents inside El Potro Mexican Café in Liberty.
Clay County Sheriff Will Akin had no idea they had any sort of operation planned until a friend told him about it.
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'He goes, 'Will, what do I do? They're over at El Potro and they're conducting a,' and I'm going to put this in air quotes, 'raid on the restaurant.''
He confirmed that no members of the Clay County Sheriff's Office were involved in the operation, and he made his way to the restaurant to find out what was happening.
'I need to know what the heck's going on in my county,' Akin said.
'I mean, a federal agency is coming in and they're, you know, conducting an operation. Again, if something happens in my county, I need to be prepared for that.'
Sheriff Akin told FOX4 that the federal agents had come to the restaurant on a single person's warrant related to child sex crimes.
'What brought them there was that one person, but they were there for worksite enforcement,' he said.
'A lot of people know that when HSI shows up, they, they're there for illegal immigration.'
Employees at El Potro said the federal agents were armed and had masks on.
'As soon as I heard, I hurried and made my way here,' said El Potro manager Yadira DeLaTorre.
'Unfortunately when I got here, they already had them in the van and they took 12 employees. I mean, it just made everybody scared. We've been working for a lot of years together and it wasn't just right for them to just come in here.'
Akin mentioned that social media posts created chaos surrounding the events on Friday morning.
'I'm frustrated with the amount of misinformation out on social media is causing mass hysteria, and I just wish people would simmer down,' he said.
'So be responsible when you're exercising your First Amendment right and don't believe everything that you see on social media. Wait for some context. Don't start sharing things that don't have context, because that's what gets us in this situation where people are scared.'
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El Potro stayed open for Friday's dinner service; they brought in employees from other locations to replace the 12 staff members who left with federal agents.
They were forced to close another location in order to staff their Liberty restaurant. Even their owner had arrived to help wash dishes for the night.
'We're open,' DeLaTorre said as the restaurant started to get busier.
'Be a little bit patient with us, it's Friday night, so we're always busy.'
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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