East Boston business owners keep ice in wing length knowing their rights

It looked like a regular breakfast when Yhoana Zapata was packing items in El Cambio Latino, the money transfer service and money transfer, where she works at the East Boston’s Orient Heights section.

Then came a group of people who would continue outside. Zapata asked if they needed a money order from a safe stand. According to Zapata, they told her no, so she left that part of the business. But then the group followed it down one of the shop alleys, and it began to feel nervous in the well -known space. They began to ask him in a corner. One of the men, speaking in Spanish, asked how many people worked in El Campio Latino and where the owner was. Other group members joined afterwards.

They mentioned that they were from “something like investigation, international security,” Zapata said. “ [agent] He came to me talking in English, asking me if I was an American citizen. At that moment I was anxious. I realized it could be ice because I had seen in the news they could ask that kind of question. “

The implementation of US immigration and customs visited several East Boston businesses on February 13, telling GBH News that visits followed the reports of the staff who worked without permission. The agency said that after talking to the management staff and verifying the employee identification documents, no further investigative action was taken. Business owners and employees deny the submission of any documents.

The Trump administration has pledged to go after “first worse” when it comes to undocumented immigrants, but in practice, ICE agents have forbidden immigrants who have not committed crimes. East Boston business owners interviewed for the story told GBH News that agents said they were seeking without documents that had no work permit – although they did not provide judicial orders or documentation to formally control businesses.

Residents have been particularly concerned in East Boston, a long pot of merging people with various Latin America immigration statuses. According to the city, nearly half of the East Boston population was born since 2023.

But while the Trump administration has signaled its intention to enhance the implementation of immigration, lawyers have increased their education efforts on what are the rights of people when they interact with ICE.

This came available for zapata on the day agents appeared in El Campio Latino. She recalled an informative package and card distributed by her daughter’s school. Zapata said the agents who approached her did not submit it by a judicial order or even gave it a business card.

“I remembered my rights and said to my husband,” I am not obliged to answer your questions, “Zapata said.

Zapata called the owner of the shop Julieth Atehortua while the agents were in El Cambio Latino, but they left before she arrived. Later, she and Ai -orta revised security footage that some of the agents entered the back of the business and tried to open a door, without permission. Some looked around the sides of the building as well.

Within an hour, rumors were rotating around the neighborhood.

On the other hand of East Boston the same day, restorer Walter Castañeda was celebrating his birthday when one of his employees called out of ice agents were at his Colombian dinner, El Jardin.

When it arrived, about 16 agents were lasting inside and outside the business. One agent told Castañeda that they would receive an anonymous call about work permit violations.

“They had no uniforms or nothing that identified them,” Castañeda recalled, though he said they were carrying sticks and firearms. “They said” we need your information for all your employees, can you do a favor and give us all their information? “”

He refused, seeking to see a judicial order or have a lawyer present.

At that point, an agent stopped one of El Jardi’s distribution staff by accident as he went out to move his double parked car. The employee gave his information to the agents, who saw that he had a future date in the immigration court on a political asylum case.

“If you don’t go to trial, we will come for you,” the agent said, according to Castañeda.

Castañeda said agents were not aggressive. And while the ice visits both in his restaurant and El Cambio Latino earlier that day were not raids, he asked agents to leave El Jard because their presence was “fearing,” he said. Unlike the Zapata in El Campia Latino, Castañeda received a business card from a special agent for the Department of Internal Security that included an email email address.

Without a court order, immigration implementation agents enter public space only within a business. This may be for the business owner to announce an audit to verify the identity and authorization of employees to work in the United States. Those who are contrary to the rules may be ordered to stop staff or face a fine. According to federal protocols, businesses have three working days

To produce those forms after receiving the ice notice.

But for El Jardin and El Cambio Latino, no official audit was conducted. A third business in Boston was visited on February 13, but the owner did not respond to comment requests.

Miguel Vargas, the East Boston Main Streets Executive Director, said the impact of fear of implementing immigration on East Boston businesses and other large -populated Latino countries such as Revere and Chelsea has been important.

“They had to rebuild or rest some people because they don’t have enough business,” he said, mentioning that anxiety has kept people not to support businesses where they will usually spend money

Vargas said the impact was also felt by consumers, with people who would usually go out to dinner with their nervous families to undertake.

“They are afraid that sometimes, you know, the ice will walk inside and start making arrest,” Vargas said.

Vargas said that education is important as if you know how to seek a judicial order. He said many organizations are working with business owners and employees to get them information on what to do if agents appear.

“That was because of them [owners] The willingness they were able to protect their workers and protect their businesses [on Feb. 13]”Said city councilor Gabriela Coletta Zapata, who represents East Boston.” East Boston has a strong community of immigrants, and protecting these businesses from the action of ice implementation requires that level of readiness as well as the support of the community. “

Coletta Zapata recently traversed the neighborhood by distributing the known pamphlets-to your rights with the city’s small business office and the mayor’s office for the advancement of immigrants. Neighbors joined for Better Boston better, a advocacy group, recently went to 85 local restaurants, shops, salons and other businesses with well-known information, with the support of another group, Maverick Landing Community Services.

For employees and business owners recently visited by ICE, these efforts are essential.

“Be firm and serious and saying” No, I can’t give you this information. This is the law and it is clear, ”Castañeda from El Jardin said when asked what he would tell other business owners.

“Be informed and keep calm,” Zapata advised by El Cambio Latino. “Don’t be overcome by your nerves. Person who has information – education for their rights – has power. “