http://www.wcfcourier.com/articles/2006 ... 537662.txt

BREAKING: Part owner charged in restaurant raid


By JEFF REINITZ, Courier Staff Writer


CEDAR FALLS --- The part owner of a restaurant that was raided by immigration agents last week has been charged.

Martha Lopez-Angel, who told authorities she was in the country illegally, was taken into federal custody Friday pending a Monday detention hearing after she was charged with inducing aliens to reside in the United States.

The offense allegedly happened in February 2006, records state.

Officers with the U.S. Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement executed a search warrant on Julio's Mexican Restaurant and Cantina in Cedar Falls Thursday and detained 12 people that authorities said were illegal immigrants.

The charges came after a cook who was found at the restaurant during the raid told agents that Lopez had asked him to work at her restaurant.

The cook, Gilberto Dominguez-Segundo, admitted he was a Mexican citizen who was in the United States illegally, according to an affidavit filed by a senior special agent for ICE.

During an administrative immigration hearing, Dominguez said he had been living in Tennessee, and Lopez recruited him to work at Julio's.

During the search, agents also discovered an express mail envelope addressed to Lopez's husband, Juan, at the Cedar Falls restaurant and from Martha Lopez in Antioch, Tenn.

Inside were copies of valid and counterfeit immigration and Social Security documents, including records for Dominguez.