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It started out as a normal day. Taquer’a El Balazo (ÒThe ShotÓ), located at 2560 Marin Street in San Francisco, opened its doors at 10 a.m. Half an hour later, the first ÒcustomersÓ arrived: Òa woman who spoke perfect Spanish, a dark-skinned man and a white man,Ó recalls S‡nchez, 32.
They ordered burritos: chorizo with egg, grilled beef and one of Òjust beans,Ó for the woman. The three sat down to eat but never lost sight of the movements of each employee and the surroundings. ÒThey ate and analyzed,Ó remembers the cook, who has worked in El Balazo for almost seven years.
The woman went to the restroom and thatÕs when the raid began. According to S‡nchez, he and his colleagues suspected from the beginning that something was wrong.
ÒCome here!Ó ICE undercover agents demanded of the three undocumented workers, all of whom were from Mexico: JosŽ S‡nchez L—pez, the cook, Antonio ÒTonyÓ Gonzalez, the dishwasher, and GonzalezÕs sister who was working the cash register.
In a matter of seconds, uniformed ICE agents had blocked the entryway, says S‡nchez, gesturing nervously as if it was happening all over again.
ÒThis is when everything came to an end, all of my dreams,Ó S‡nchez said. That was the first thought that came to his mind when he saw the immigration raids happen before him.
ÒThey (ICE agents) asked me for my identification and I told them that I didnÕt have any,Ó said S‡nchez, a native of Guadalajara, Jalisco. The agents went through the workersÕ lockers and removed their belongings. S‡nchez says they took his driver's license, which he got in Washington state.
Without understanding the reason for their arrest, the three immigrants were detained. The biggest surprise, S‡nchez says, was when he ran into a number of employees from the same taqueria chain in jail.
He was shocked when he learned that the other detainees were his colleagues from the taqueria branches in cities like Danville, San Ramon, Concord, Pleasanton and Lafayette, Calif.