Upstate NY restaurateur accused of hiring illegal alien workers...

Upstate NY restaurateur accused of hiring illegal alien workers


By Carolyn Thompson
The Associated Press, April 16, 2008



Buffalo, NY (AP) -- The owner of several Mexican restaurants and 10 of his restaurant managers were arrested Wednesday for recruiting illegal Mexican immigrants to staff the businesses in exchange for little pay and dismal housing, federal authorities said.

Simon Banda, who went by the name Jorge Delarco, was arrested at his home in the Buffalo suburb of Depew during morning raids by federal, state and local law enforcement agents in five states.

Banda owns or operates seven restaurants in New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia. His sister's Georgia home was also searched.

The raids on the restaurants and 12 apartments used to house workers also netted 45 illegal immigrants, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials said.

Lev Kubiak, acting special agent in charge of ICE in Buffalo, said Banda entered the United States illegally an unknown number of years ago and created a false identity using the birth certificate of a Honduran man. As Delarco, Banda was granted temporary protected status and permission to work in this country, according to court documents.

To find workers for his restaurants, Banda 'would contact friends and family in Mexico looking for individuals who would pay $2,700 to be smuggled into this country,' U.S. Attorney Terrance Flynn said.

Once at the restaurants, Banda would pay off the workers' smuggling debt and then force them to work it off with 72-hour work weeks while living in substandard apartments, Flynn said.

Banda, meantime, would skim 50 percent of each restaurant's profits and stash the proceeds in bank safe deposit boxes and at his sister's house, according to an ICE investigator's affidavit, which was based in part on interviews with unidentified cooperating witnesses. An ICE financial auditor estimated Banda skimmed about $140,000 from each of his restaurants each year.

The restaurant managers went along with Banda's hiring and bookkeeping practices, officials said. They, along with Banda, face charges of conspiring to harbor illegal aliens. Some of the managers were in the country illegally themselves, authorities said.

Banda appeared in court without a lawyer Wednesday and was given until Friday to hire one. Magistrate Judge Hugh Scott ordered him detained until then, based on the government's assertion that Banda is a Mexican citizen who is in the United States illegally.

Six of Banda's restaurant managers, including two of his brothers, also made an initial appearance. Javier Banda of Depew was released on $5,000 bail, whole Honorio Banda of Bradford, Pa., was held because he is allegedly in the country illegally.

One other manager was released on bail, another was held because of outstanding warrants and the others were detained because of their illegal status.

In all, law enforcement agents executed 26 search and arrest warrants as part of an investigation that began two years ago.

The searched restaurants are located in Bradford, Pa.; Mentor, Ohio; Wheeling and Martinsville, W.Va., and Cheektowaga, Dunkirk and Allegany in New York.



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