ICE arrests South Texas bakery owners accused of hiring undocumented workers

[alwaysinasnit]

https://www.texastribune.org/2025/02/20/texas-immigrants-los-fresnos-rio-grande-valley-bakery-raid-harboring/

McALLEN — The owners of a South Texas bakery were arrested and charged with harboring undocumented workers, a relatively rare incidence of federal agents pursuing business owners for allegedly employing undocumented immigrants.

Homeland Security Investigations conducted a "worksite enforcement action" at Abby’s Bakery in Los Fresnos on Feb. 12 and said they arrested eight undocumented workers. The agency said the owners, Leonardo Baez and Nora Alicia Avila-Guel were charged with "bringing in and harboring aliens and aiding and abetting the harboring of aliens."

A criminal complaint filed by a Homeland Security special agent said the owners admitted they knew the employees were undocumented.

Prosecuting businesses that employ undocumented workers is rare. Even during President Donald Trump's first term, Immigration and Customs Enforcement did not often exercise that authority.

snip...

I'm waiting to see if ICE raids any big meat-processing plants or large-scale farming operations, but I won't be holding my breath.

[dhol82]

1. Wonder if they voted for Biden?

[TheBlackAdder]

13. I assume ICE will be raiding this Kristy Noem Trump-supporting neighbor who employs 50% undocumented.

At the 4:12 mark...

The dude admits right on TV that half of his workforce is undocumented, and he does not fear being raided because it is a soft-spoken word that this occurs and is needed to keep the farms going.

[Johnny2X2X]

19. 100% a Biden voter

They wouldn’t do this to a Trump supporter. Period.

[LeftInTX]

32. She and her husband are from Mexico.

The criminal complaint says that are both citizens of Mexico and lawful permanent residents. She registered to vote in 2001, but did not vote in the 2020 election, but voted in the D primary. She did not vote in the 2024 primary. Her husband is not a registered voter.

The county she lives in went for Trump. They live right on the border. 90% Latino population. The daughter opened the bakery after they were raided. (The daughter lives and runs a cafe in Ciudad Victoria, MX but also owns a house in Los Fresnos, which is probably about 60 miles from Los Fresnos)

Daughter posted this on FB:
Abby's Bakery
Good Morning ❤️
Thank you very much everyone for waiting.
We are now open! 😊
We're waiting for you!
417 W. Ocean Blvd. Los Fresnos, Tx.
[phone]

[Walleye]

2. Are the owners registered Democrats?

Seems like some kind of selective enforcement here

[alwaysinasnit]

4. I'm speculating that it is a lot easier to go after, and intimidate, small business owners rather than go

after big corporations who have donated to tsf.

[Walleye]

8. Yes, they don't wanna piss off their corporate masters

[Ferryboat]

14. If business owners knew THEY would be the one to go jail

there wouldn't be a problem.
Same with corporate. No underlings, jail heads of departments.

Just saying

[alwaysinasnit]

16. I agree, and I'm not condoning the exploitation by the owners. I am only focusing on the fact that

ICE chose to go after a little guy rather than a big corporation.

[LeftInTX]

33. The owners are from Mexico themselves. This is a border town.

According to the charging document both are "permanent residents". However, she is a registered voter, but doesn't vote very much. Since the town went for Trump, who knows?

[alwaysinasnit]

35. I'm curious. How is it possible that she is a registered voter given that she is not a US citizen?

Do you have any updated info? Thanks in advance.

[LeftInTX]

36. I have no idea....She could be a US citizen, but the charging document says they are "permanent residents".

[alwaysinasnit]

37. Thanks!

[Phoenix61]

3. I'm not surprised based on the owners names.

I doubt they would have been charged if they were Smith or Jones.

[efhmc]

5. How about the Texas Highway Department, large home building and landscape companies?

[alwaysinasnit]

6. +1000

[SWBTATTReg]

7. So, if any of us employ people that mow our yards, clean our homes, fix our cars, or any of the other numerous

daily tasks that are all around us, work at our meat packing plants, do our roofing, etc., we're all supposed to ask/seek out if these people are here illegally, and possibly have the Feds after us, if we hire or buy products such as pkgs of meat?

A rather tall order but one that I would not be surprised that djt would love the show of such an occurrence shown on national TV, ICE raiding a plant, or arresting an American for hiring such a person who in reality really have no realistic way of determining if a person is here illegally or not?

[alwaysinasnit]

9. I agree. I think intimidation is the point and these bakery owners are going to be made an example of.

[LeftInTX]

10. It's a little more complicated because this is a work place

https://www.valleycentral.com/news/local-news/owners-of-abbys-bakery-in-los-fresnos-charged-with-harboring-illegal-migrants/

They knew they were here illegally. Plus there are wage laws etc. There were eight of them.

Baez and Avila-Guel admitted that they knew the people were unlawfully present in the country and that they harbored them in the property that they personally owned, according to the criminal complaint.

Two of the people present in the country illegally identified Baez and Avila-Guel as the bakery owners and the duo that harbored them and others.

Still there are lots of places like this bakery all over the place. They hire undocumented. They usually pay below minimum wage.
And if you own a business, you are supposed to verify that your employees are in the US legally.

I remember this came up in the 90's......Almost everyone who contractors hire around here do not speak English and are not here legally. We needed work done and new roof and heard that everyone was gonna be prosecuted for this and that....We hired a sheet metal guy. He was white. But his crew was obviously not from here. However, he was the one doing the hiring, not us.

[kelly1mm]

11. This is a good thing! We here on DU have generally always supported going after those that exploit undocumented

immigrants. No problem with this at all.

[msongs]

17. so the exploited undocumented are gonna be shipped south asap. well at least they

won't be exploited by the bakery owners anymore right?

[JoseBalow]

31. Uno mas

[Baitball Blogger]

12. Who doesn't think that Elon Musk doesn't have

A few undocumented residents working for him?

[magicarpet]

15. Upon hiring an employee there is an I-9 Form that the employer must provide and the employee filled out,....

.... by the employee before they can be put on the payroll. This I-9 Form determines whether a person can be employed to work in America.

Every prospective employee is required by US Immigration authorities to fill out a Form I-9.

■○■○■○■○

Form I-9 is an eligibility form required by the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 (IRCA) to verify the identity and legal work eligibility of unauthorized immigrants. In fact, if an employer does not include the proper documents for I-9 verification, they may risk legal complications and fines. This is why verifying each employee’s eligibility for employment is a critical part of the hiring process and should be part of your new hire onboarding checklist, whether hiring your first employee or one hundredth.

[somsai]

20. The requirements of the I 9 are simply that you look at the verification documents and write down the information

there is no requirement to make photocopies. An employer is not a document specialist they are simply following the law. Having the SS# of employees allows you to purchase workers compensation which is very important so that if someone gets hurt their lawyer doesn't sue you personally and take your house and business. You also withhold SS Medicare and income tax based on the info the employee provides on the completed W4. And at least quarterly form 941 with both the employee and employers withholding taxes.

Millions of employers employ illegal workers, legally.

I have no employees, but I'm familiar.

[Norrrm]

18. Remember:: whatever bad that Donald says about "illegals"/undoc immigrants, he would rather hire them than pay America

Remember:::: whatever bad that Donald says about "illegals"/undoc immigrants, he would rather hire them than pay Americans.
The very same "illegals"/undoc immigrants that he blames for so much crime.

He only quit hiring them when it became politically inconvenient.

[dflprincess]

21. And a small business as well

You won't see them arrest the CEOs of any large agri-business firms that employ undocumented workers.

[iemanja]

24. Or the owner of Trump's golf courses.

[czarjak]

22. Now start with the farmers and the ranchers. I know 2. They'd love it! Believe me period.

[iemanja]

23. While the meat packing giants go untouched.

[markodochartaigh]

28. There have been periodic crackdowns,

but the owners of meat packers are obviously too wealthy and have too many layers between themselves and thode doing the hiring to ever be touched. After high school I worked for a year and a half at the local factory slaughterhouse to get money for college. The workforce was almost entirely Viet Namese and Laotian refugees and recent immigrants from México. People from the US, of any race/ethnicity, rarely lasted a week, many quit before lunch the first day. The local economy was bad and not being able to hack the slaughterhouse meant accepting poverty or moving at least 300 miles away. And probably 90% of US citizens were gone within a month. Today's TikTok kids wouldn't last an hour. And for people over 40, not one in a thousand would last a month, even knowing that the alternative was homelessness.



https://www.texasstandard.org/stories/cactus-texas-immigration-raid-slaughterhouse-2006-panhandle/

[iemanja]

30. Sounds horrible

I bet they’ll be able to keep undocumented workers.

[AllaN01Bear]

25. how many does ... employ at mar a barfo?

[Klarkashton]

26. Obviously the "worst of the worst" what a crock of

Rotten horseshit .

Ignorant maga: " oh they are to get all those gang people they won't bother the workers". Oh fuck you maga.

[Bev54]

27. Waiting for a raid at Mar a Lago................ waiting

[Bluethroughu]

29. Better head on over to kristie Nomes farm, her neighbor the trump supporter too,

That said it on tv.

[LeftInTX]

34. Here is the charging document. Both are from Mexico. (Also it says they're from Mexico on their FB pages)

This is not unusual, for immigrants to bring other immigrants in like this....

[intheflow]

38. I wonder if they were a stop on an Underground Railroad.

Help out a fellow immigrant, give them a bit of work experience for a reference to start building a life in the US. Of course, it’s also the racism, that white farmers aren’t being targeted, and also, the article uses the language that they were harboring immigrants in addition to hiring them.

[LeftInTX]

39. Chain migration is a thing. But it also is not legal if the migrants did not enter the US legally.

Just imagine if everyone did it??? Basically, it would invalidate any border that we have. It would mean anyone could come.

That's how it was prior to 1921. Then, poof too many immigrants and they shut the door. My grandfather and his future father in law came in 1910. They filled up boarding rooms, as long as you had a friend, you could enter. When my grandmother and her mother arrived in 1923, the door was shut because they changed the laws. They were both deported. Eventually they got in.

I'm sure the migrants had every intention of staying in South Texas. That's where most feel comfortable. They develop communities and they stay. Asylum seekers often move on because they have appointments with ICE they need to keep. But those who enter illegally don't have the motivation to leave. There is plenty of work in the Rio Grande Valley. I'm sure we have plenty in San Antonio too. Lots of mom and pop places hire. This couple is fairly well off BTW. So, I wonder if this was an arrangement where they migrate and take advantage of their services? Their home is appraised at 316,000 and that's alot in the Rio Grande Valley