The reported arrest of three restaurant workers in Willmar, Minnesota — coming just hours after Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents had reportedly dined in their establishment — has been widely condemned on social media as “depraved” and “diabolical.”
The Minnesota Star Tribune, citing an eyewitness, reported Thursday that four ICE agents sat down to eat lunch at the family-owned Mexican restaurant El Tapatio at around 3 p.m. on Wednesday.
Staff appeared “frightened,” according to the witness.
After the business closed at 8.30 p.m., agents reportedly followed the departing workers and detained three of them, while being heckled by protesters.
The immigration status of the detained workers is not known.
The reported incident comes amid heightened federal immigration enforcement activity in Minnesota, and amid rising tensions following the fatal shooting of Renee Good by an ICE agent.
The Department of Homeland Security has not commented on the report.
