One of my favorite local Mexican/Indigenous restaurants was targeted by federal agents. [View all]

[MLAA]

https://www.tucsonsentinel.com/local/report/021225_la_indita_ice/ice-probes-tucson-restaurant-la-indita-known-indigenous-focus-activism/

When Denise Schafer arrived at her restaurant on Tuesday afternoon, three federal agents with Homeland Security Investigations, a part of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, were waiting in the lobby for her.

As the Trump administration launches a "shock and awe" program aimed at undocumented migrants and legal immigrants with criminal records, enlisting agents from across federal law enforcement to fill quotas, ICE agents in Tucson have engaged in targeted arrests and launched investigations into a number of small businesses.

Around 1 p.m. on Tuesday, an employee at La Indita — a Tucson stalwart that has served Mexican and Indigenous-style food for more than 40 years — called Schafer to tell her the ICE agents were at the eatery and were asking questions about employees.

Schafer and Shawn Soulsby, the operations manager, called their attorney and rushed to the business on North Stone Avenue.

When they arrived, the agents handed Schafer paperwork, but there were errors on the original, which had been haphazardly scratched out and rewritten by hand, she said.

Schafer said she felt "intimidated" because the agents showed up in the middle of the day, not wearing uniforms and pushed her to sign paperwork and give her ID. However, they were stymied by attorney Stacy Scheff, who "kind of stopped them in their tracks and said that the paperwork that they had was didn't look legit."

Schafer said the lead agent, a special agent with Homeland Security Investigations, said he wasn't with ICE — HSI's parent agency. The other agents, both young and "much more intimidating physically" were along for training, she said.