By JW August / June 3, 2025
San Diego Congressional and local elected officials stood together Monday to denounce last weekend’s armed Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raid on a South Park neighborhood restaurant.
Four U.S. representatives and two mayors vowed to challenge the Trump Administration’s militaristic tactics in storming the popular Buona Forchetta eatery on Friday and intimidating the South Park community. An estimated 20 to 25 ICE agents handcuffed the entire staff while looking for 19 employees named in a warrant signed by local magistrate Judge Karen Crawford. Four employees with no identification were taken into custody.
“Over the past week, the immigration enforcement tactics we’ve seen in San Diego have crossed a new line,” said Rep. Sara Jacobs. “This isn’t about going after criminals. They’re going after people who are trying to do the right thing and people who are contributing to our economy.”
Jacobs was joined at the press conference outside the James M. Carter and Judith N. Keep Federal Courthouse by Reps. Juan Vargas, Mike Levin, and Scott Peters and by San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria and Imperial Beach Mayor Paloma Aguirre.
Vargas said he is demanding a meeting with Crawford’s boss, Judge Cynthia Bashant, who became Chief Judge in January of this year. “Why were ICE agents armed to the teeth as if they were entering a war zone, storming restaurants?” Vargas asked. “We’re here because we’re pissed off and we’re not going to allow this to happen.”
Levin placed the blame on White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, who has declared he wants 3,000 people arrested daily by government agents. “Setting an arbitrary quota is what created a mess like what we saw on Friday,” Levin said. “It will continue unless we all speak out against it.”
Peters said the overwhelming show of coercive force gave the impression that gang members or drug traffickers were on the premises. “People must have thought, wow, there must be MS-13 here or some drug kingpin, maybe someone like El Chapo is at the bar,” he said. “No. They took four people away, dishwashers, busboys, maybe a cook.”
Later in the day, the sealed warrant and its supporting affidavit were released. They revealed that Buona Forchetta came on the ICE radar in November 2020 after the Department of Homeland Security received a tip accusing the restaurant of employment of illegal immigrants and labor exploitation.
The tipster alleged that restaurant owner Matteo Cattaneo knowingly employed undocumentd immigrants and individuals not authorized to work in the United States. Cattaneo was further accused of exploiting employees by having them work over 12-hour to 24-hour shifts with no breaks.
Nearly four years after the original tip, ICE began active surveillance of the restaurant May 22nd and 23rd. According to the affidavit, agents identified a number of employees thought to be violating immigration laws. One man in particular was suspected of using “fraudulent identity documents to gain employment at Buona Forchetta.”
Friday’s raid has upset the usually quiet neighborhood, and the South Park community has been very supportive of the restaurant and its staff. Buona Forchetta, a family of Italian restaurants in San Diego and Orange Counties, issued a statement that all 12 locations will be closed Monday and Tuesday.
“We wish we could find stronger words, but the truth is we are heartbroken. The traumatic incident involving a federal enforcement operation at our original and beloved South Park location has left a mark on all of us. … What has kept us going, truly, is you. The outpouring of love from the community has been overwhelming in the best way.”
That support is visible in dozens of bouquets of flowers placed around the front door at 30th and Beech Streets. All 12 Buona Forchetta locations are expected to reopen soon.
JW August is an investigative reporter and a frequent Rag contributor.
A lot of questions about this. Is an employer charged for having undocumented workers with false identities? Were there actually labor violations in hours worked? How to prove that an employer knew of false identities? Why was there no action on an initial complaint for so many years?
TBD.
And there was an excellent march on Sunday supporting the restaurant. Someone should have pics of the march, & there are videos of the neighborhood advancing on the storm trooper hornets & making them depart on Bluesky social media.
I’ve been covering this ICE raid since Friday afternoon. And Monday I was at the federal court sidewalk press conference. Back story-Initially no one in the media had the warrants or the affidavits which are the meat and potatoes of the governments argument to the judge to sign the warrant. The judge was called out by Mr Vargas for signing off on the warrant. At the time, we didn’t know what the government had on the restaurant. By late afternoon, we had the warrant. It put a hole in the attack on the judge. BUT even if the feds had due cause the question remains…..why wait almost five years since the initial tip and begin undercover operations watching the restaurant last month? The following graph was provided but was not in included in my story for the OBrag and I felt it had to be part of the story because the concern should be focused on the timing of the raid, how the storm troopers locked down the restaurant and scared the hell out of everyone. Frightening glimpse of the power of the federal government.
SEVERAL speakers said the ICE guys were not to blame, they are told to do a job, they do it. The blame lies 2269 miles east of San Diego as the crow flies.
The bad guy is NOT the judge as initially thought but the belief expressed by Congressman Mike Levin. He pointed out the real cause of this exercise in intimidation–Stephen Miller, Trump’s Rasputin. He wants thousands arrested everyday.
Here is the additional information I gathered for the story:
‘An expert on the criminal justice system at the federal level reviewed the affidavits we provided. It is this expert’s opinion that Judge Crawford was provided enough
substantiated information by the lead ICE agent to justify signing the warrant. At the same time, the expert is not qualified to determine if the raid was appropriately handled or heavy handed. That’s what Congressman Scott Peters wondered; how scary it must have been to be guests having dinner at the restaurant, watching armed ICE agents sweeping in from all sides.’
Footage of the community chanting “shame” as they advance on the retreating ICE agents:
https://www.facebook.com/reel/3932184620445359
Along with everyone who witnessed the local television coverage and cell phone video shared on the Internet, I was horrified to see the new Federal “Gestapo”wearing camo uniforms, combat helmets, FACE MASKS, and holding portable cannons as they raided a South Park restaurant full of innocent patrons eating meals and food workers. This is our worst nightmare that Felonious 47 and Herr Stephen Miller have wrought upon this land.
Back in the 1960s, I worked in restaurants and warehouses and often left my wallet with driver’s license locked in the trunk of my car for personal security. Based on the ICE raid, I would have been handcuffed and dragged out into the street, humiliated by an illegal arrest simply because I was not carrying ID papers. Since when in the United States of America are we required to carry identification papers when in the City of San Diego? This is an outrage that needs to be stopped and Congress must apologize for allowing this to come to pass.
In case you are unaware or living under a rock, we are a nation of laws, and being in this country illegally is “AGAINST THE LAW”, keep the raids coming.
Peace-out
J.R. Riggins
This ignorant comment was approved in order to allow us to respond.
Well, John Robert Riggins, in case you’ve been under a rock — which looks like you have — we are no longer a nation of laws – the president himself was convicted of 34 felonies but the system and nearly half the electorate ignored that. You are also missing the fact that our economy is based on hundreds of thousands of people who are undocumented doing the work that true Americans don’t want to do, paying taxes and social security which they cannot collect on. This has been going on for decades. ICE has become Trump’s militarized edge of the new fascism. The raids threaten the fabric of what’s left of this republic. So, yeah, JRR, go to sleep every night content that you’re just being a “good German.”
Also timely, The Progressive.com has an article about the recent raids in L.A. with Mayor Bass displeasure of raids by ICE with Stephen Miller’s militarization of ICE along with the Feds superiority over the situation. This sounds reminiscent of Hitler’s Brown Shirts. No doubt you are ill informed ot the late 1930’s in Germany. Peace -out my foot.
Free Press, you say? I stay away from the TV ‘brand’ of news and rely on printed media, The Atlantic, Politico, The New Yorker, etc, but this item hasn’t appeared except for here. Be afraid and do your best to stay engaged, Don’t Forget No Kings Day next Saturday, time to stand up to this fraud that the Democratic Party remains a silent partner.