Latest news with #Paizis
Yahoo
22-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Rochester restaurant hopes to reopen soon after worker was detained by ICE
Nupá restaurant in Rochester closed one of its two locations earlier this month after a staff member was allegedly detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in the restaurant's parking lot on Feb. 12. Owner Ted Paizis tells Bring Me The News that Nupá's north Rochester location remains closed, but he's planning to reopen soon as the company hires new staff. The restaurant's other location, 412 Crossroads Dr., has remained open after initially closing for a day. "The community has been great," Paizis says. "We are a very popular restaurant, and it's hard to open half-assed. We need to make sure that everyone is getting the service they deserve." However, there has also been vitriol directed toward the restaurant. Paizis says "very nasty people showing their true colors" have sent messages like "Burn Nupa" and "Just hire good white Christian men and you won't have this problem." Initially, the restaurant said two of its employees had been detained, but it now reports that one of its employees was taken into custody along with another individual who was dropping them off at work. The restaurant has been "unable to get ahold of another [employee]," Paizis tells Bring Me The News. However, they have not been able to find them in the ICE database. "We have received word that an immigration hearing is set to take place next week for one [employee]," the restaurant wrote in an update shared on Thursday. "We plan to attend if they'll allow it. We have heard that some customers have also expressed interest in being present to show their support. Any presence in support of this gentleman would be such a huge statement to his character and [the] impact he has made on society." Representatives for ICE did not respond to a request for comment. The Rochester Police Department previously confirmed with Bring Me The News that it was aware of ICE operations in the community, but the department was not involved.
CBS News
14-02-2025
- Politics
- CBS News
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.
