Thread: Immigration agents seen around Maine

Posted: 12:00 AM
Updated: 10:05 PM

Immigration agents seen around Maine

By Leslie Bridgers lbridgers@pressherald.com
Staff Writer

Federal immigration agents have been spotted around the state today, including in Portland and Westbrook.

Westbrook police Capt. Tom Roth said his department provided officers to assist immigration agents with an "operation" today in that city, but declined to be more specific.

Immigration agents had not booked anyone at Cumberland County Jail today, as of early this afternoon, according to a jail employee.

An employee at Kon Asian Bistro on Brighton Avenue in Portland, one place where vehicles from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement were seen, said the restaurant would be open for dinner and wouldn't say whether immigration agents had been at the restaurant or made arrests there.

Chuck Jackson, spokesman for the federal agency's New England field office in Boston, declined to comment and referred questions to the U.S. Attorney's office.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Don Clark also declined to comment.

According to media reports, ICE agents were also seen today at the New China Super Buffet restaurant in Lewiston, at a home in Brewer and at two other restaurants, the Twin Super Buffet in Brewer and the Super China Buffet in Waterville.

On Sept. 21, federal immigration agents raided three Mexican restaurants, Fajita Grill in Westbrook and Cancun restaurants in Waterville in Biddeford. Agents arrested eight workers from Mexico and Guatemala, as well as Guillermo Fuentes, owner of Fajita Grill, and his brother Hector Fuentes, owner of the other two restaurants.

http://www.onlinesentinel.com/news/immi ... 11-16.html

Feds: Illegal aliens crammed into Brewer, ME ‘safe house’
BREWER, Maine — The federal immigration and money laundering investigation that led to a raid Wednesday of the Twin Super Buffet and two homes in Brewer, as well as others around the state, continued Thursday.

“They processed several individuals,â€

Mexican citizen charged in wake of federal raid on Brewer Chinese buffet
Kevin Bennett

BANGOR, Maine — A Mexican national faces a charge of illegally entering the United States after federal agents raided the Twin Super Buffet in Brewer on Wednesday.

Walter Cruz Sanchez-Armira, a 24-year-old Mexican citizen, was questioned and arrested after Department of Homeland Security investigators determined during an interview at the Chinese restaurant that Sanchez-Armira hadn’t obtained proper documentation to enter the United States, according to an affidavit filed in U.S. District Court.

Local police and federal agents raided Chinese buffet restaurants in Brewer, Lewiston, Waterville and the Portland area on Wednesday — reportedly operated by members of the family-run “Zhang Operationâ€

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Wed Nov 16, 2011

Feds raid Super China Buffet

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Illegal Immigrant from Mexico Arrested

wabi.tv
by Meghan Hayward
November 18th 2011 04:25pm

Brewer - An illegal immigrant from Mexico has been arrested.

Twenty-four-year-old Walter Cruz Sanchez-Amira has been charged with unlawful presence in the United States, after being previously removed from the country.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents were at Twin Super Buffet on State Street in Brewer where, they say, Sanchez-Amira was located.

We've also heard from a person who works near the Super China Buffet in Waterville that federal agents searched that restaurant too.

The Lewiston Sun-Journal reported agents were also seen at the new China Super Buffet Restaurant in Lewiston.

Officials say male employees are accused of being in the U.S. illegally.

They tell us another thirteen workers had no authorization to work here.

http://www.wabi.tv/news/25407/illegal-i ... +-+News%29

Posted: 12:00 AM

Immigration raid included home search

WATERVILLE -- Details are emerging about federal immigration raids in Waterville and elsewhere in Maine this week.

In addition to a raid at a Kennedy Memorial Drive restaurant, federal immigration agents also searched an Oak Street home Wednesday.

On Friday, a U.S. attorney said one person working in Brewer had been charged and another 22 people had violated immigration laws, but provided few additional details.

During the raid at 7 Oak St., Waterville officers briefly aided U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents as they entered the house, according to Waterville police Deputy Chief Charles Rumsey.

"We did have some people assist," said Rumsey, who said the department provided a local enforcement presence. "Once they (federal agents) made entry and there were no issues, we cleared the scene."

A man who said he worked at Super China Buffet on Kennedy Memorial Drive said about 10 employees were questioned there by federal officials Wednesday. The man, who did not give his name, said no one was taken into custody.

The man said he was born in China and is a U.S. citizen.

He said about 10 U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrived at 11 a.m., almost immediately after employees reported to work.

Nine search warrants were executed that day at four Chinese restaurants in Maine where illegal aliens had allegedly been employed and at five houses where they were alleged to have been living.

On Friday, U.S. Attorney Thomas E. Delahanty II announced that during the raid in Brewer, Walter Cruz Sanchez-Armira, 24, was charged with unlawful presence in the U.S. after having been previously removed from the country.

Agents found Sanchez-Armira, a Mexican citizen, while searching Twin Super Buffet in Brewer and an associated residence, according to court records.

In addition to Sanchez-Armira, Delahanty said nine male employees were arrested for being illegally present in the United States -- four from Mexico, three from Guatemala, one from China and one from Honduras.

Agents also encountered an additional 13 employees who had no authorization to work in the United States, according to information provided by the U.S. Attorney's Office.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Donald Clark would not identify the others arrested or those who had no authorization to be in the United States, or say where any of them had been working or living.

The Waterville home that federal agents searched Wednesday was condemned in December 2008 by Waterville's code enforcement officer.

The three-story house was deemed unfit for people because it had no heat and had broken water pipes, serious electrical violations and shattered windows.

"There was a bucket with toilet paper and feces in it," said Fire Chief David LaFountain at the time. "I think anyone who lives in Waterville would be shocked at the conditions we found there."

Tina Chen, manager of the Super China Buffet raided Wednesday, also managed Grand Asian Buffet in 2008. The Super China Buffet is in the same building where the Grand Asian Buffet once operated.

Chen and other restaurant employees lived at the Oak Street home when it was condemned.

Chen and Tony Jan have managed Super China Buffet since 2009.

"We own two houses for our staff to share -- it's part of their pay," Chen said at the time. "We give them transportation to and from work. Most stay for a year to one-and-a-half years and then move on."

Jan said at the time that he met Chen while working at her uncle's restaurant in Arkansas.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the main investigative branch of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, removes illegal aliens from the country.

http://www.kjonline.com/news/immigratio ... 11-18.html