Over two dozen employees at the Zion Market in San Diego, California were taken into custody following a raid by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers to detain unauthorized workers in the United States, reports the Los Angeles Times.
The front manager at Zion Market, Yongho Jun, believes that the detained workers were predominantly Latino and Asian.
According to NBC 7 San Diego, an unnamed man told Telemundo 20 that he and other workers hid in a room before ICE agents knocked the door down and temporarily detained them. The man said he believes that all employees were released except the three who he suspects to have criminal records.
ICE agents, along with Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), allegedly executed a federal search warrant after a year-long investigation to crack down on employers who hire undocumented workers.
HSI Agent David Shaw told NBC 7 that these operations are to ensure the hiring of people legally authorized to live and work in the United States, reports NBC 7 San Diego.
“It’s a compliance measure for us to ensure employers are actually hiring people that are legally in the country and eligible to work,” Shaw said.
Shaw also mentioned that its a security measure to limit other forms of illegal activity. Shaw said, “Some of these folks are trafficked, some of these folks are smuggled in – there’s more money laundering that goes with some of these cases too.”
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