Thread: Hayward Pizza Parlor Targeted In Immigration Raid

Hayward pizza parlor targeted in immigration raid

By Matt O'Brien, Staff writer
Article Last Updated: 06/19/2007 07:19:12 PM PDT


HAYWARD — A pizza parlor owner is facing a federal criminal charge and most of his workforce could be deported to Brazil after a Friday night raid on his restaurants by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

ICE agents say Glenio Silva, 38, a legal immigrant from Brazil, harbored a workforce of undocumented Brazilian employees at his two restaurants in San Francisco and downtown Hayward.

The Fremont resident was released on $75,000 bail Monday and went back to work Tuesday at the Pizza House, his Hayward restaurant. But several of his workers, including a recent high school student, remain jailed and likely will be deported. Others are still being sought, said ICE spokeswoman Virginia Kice.

"What they did is not right," Silva said Tuesday, as his remaining workforce described how armed agents charged into the B Street storefront at about 6:30 p.m. Friday. "This is going to change many people's lives."

Ray Greenlee, a deputy special agent in charge at ICE's San Francisco office, said four of the Brazilian workers are charged with identity theft. All illegal immigrants, they used real birth certificates to assume the names of U.S. citizens and obtain driver licenses, Greenlee said.

The other Brazilians face administrative — not criminal — charges, but can be sent back to Brazil for having entered the country illegally, Greenlee said. Kice said she would not release the names of those who were arrested on immigration violations because it is

"an administrative matter."
Silva declined to talk about the specifics of the case, but said it was unfair for the government to target his business and take away its workers.

A former pizza deliveryman himself, he opened his San Francisco restaurant, Monterey Pizza, a decade ago. In 2004, he expanded to a historic brick building in downtown Hayward.

He has lived in the U.S. for about 18 years and the Bay Area since 1992.

"We make food 16 hours a day. Look at our menu," he exclaimed Tuesday, pointing to words that advertised that the parlor delivers pizzas from 11 a.m. to 3 a.m. "The only thing we were doing was making food."

In a statement, ICE said it targeted Silva's business because he exploited an illegal workforce to make a profit, "staff(ing) the two restaurants with unauthorized workers from Brazil, paying them cash to conceal their illegal employment and avoid paying payroll taxes."


Greenlee, the special agent, said Silva also was housing some of the workers at his business. Some of them were living in the upstairs portion of the brick building on B Street.

"Increasingly, we are focusing on attempting to bring criminal charges on employers who are breaking the law," Kice said. In contrast, she said, immigration officials used to fine employers, who "treated those fines as part of the cost of doing business."

If convicted of the federal charge of harboring illegal aliens, Silva could face a maximum five years in prison and the possibility of deportation.

The parent of two young children, he said he is not sure what happens next.

ICE conducted the raids simultaneously at Silva's two pizzerias Friday, without the help of local law enforcement in San Francisco or Hayward.

San Francisco has a "sanctuary" policy that precludes local police from cooperating with federal immigration enforcement. Hayward has no such formal policy, although Police Chief Lloyd Lowe has said it is not his department's practice to get involved in immigration issues.

ICE did work with the California Department of Motor Vehicles during the course of the 4-month investigation, Greenlee said.

Rosana Barcellos, who has worked for Silva for about six years, said she and other employees were forced to stand between a soda cabinet and the Hayward pizzeria's front window as they were handcuffed.

"There was a huge crowd outside, seeing everything," Barcellos said. "It was humiliating."

Barcellos, a legal immigrant from Brazil, was asked for her green card. She didn't have it with her, so ICE agents drove her to her home on Highland Avenue so she could show it to them.

The names of most of the detained workers were unavailable Tuesday, but Barcellos said one of them was a young man who recently attended high school in Pinole.

He was identified as Alan Manezes, 18, a June graduate of Pinole Valley High.

The Rev. Flavio Carvalho, a pastor at the El Cerrito Christian Center who knew the student, said he is still trying to figure out what happened to him. Carvalho said he wasn't aware the student might be an illegal immigrant.

"I haven't been able to talk to him directly," said Carvalho. "He's a great guy. Very involved, very friendly, respectful of authority, very talented. He plays the guitar."

Since 2003, ICE has removed more than 17,500 Brazilian nationals from the country, according to documents provided by the agency Tuesday. Most of those reportedly arrived on business or vacation visas and then overstayed them.



http://www.insidebayarea.com/timesstar/ci_6179164

A pizza palor? Oh brother, when will they go after WalMart and Home Depot for this--probably never, these little raids are to pacify us.

boo hoo, usa is actually enforcing laws. the smuggling is truly out of hand. It's about time ice did it's job.