A Pittsburgh-area Mexican restaurant general manager is reacting to Immigration and Customs Enforcement activity being reportedly locally.
Raul Carrillo, who didn’t want his restaurant to be identified, says that no one from his location has been detained by ICE agents.
Carrillo says he support President Donald Trump’s effort to deport those in the United States illegally.
“What’ they’re trying to do it get bad people out and what I got behind me is good people, great workers, that’s all I have,” said Carrillo.
Carrillo says he is “okay” with undocumented people being deported, including what are called collateral arrests, when someone without a criminal conviction is taken in during raid to apprehend a migrant with criminal history.
“I’m okay with that, because I’m a U.S. citizen and I’m okay. He’s doing his job so, they’re just trying to make America great again, at some point,” said Carrillo, reacting to comments.
He also doesn’t expect the crackdown to have any affect on his business, saying that over 99 percent of his customers are in the United States legally.
Some businesses have reportedly closed or had employees not show up for work out of fear of being deported.
Carrillo says, at his business, he hasn’t closed and isn’t worried about workers not showing up, because they are here legally.
Carrillo says he came to America when he was 12-years-old and came here legally. He has now been in the United State for over 40 years.
Carrillo is optimistic that Trump will be able to grow the economy, adding that business was “booming” during his first term in office.
At the same time, Carrillo says he is affected by the perceptions that some people have just by looking at him.
“I’ve been living here since I was 12 . . . I have my third generations here already, I have grandkids,” said Carrillo. “It hurts that my grandkids get discriminated against because of their color.”
While Carrillo doesn’t expect his business to change or be affected, it will cause some issues across the country.
“It’s going to affect the (produce) field, first of all, it’s going to affect grocery stores . . . it’s going to be hard to get your produce at home,” said Carrillo. “It’s going to hurt us to get the products in our kitchen. That’s the only way I see it’s going to hurt us.”