Posted on 09/22/2006 6:18:55 AM PDT by Biblebelter
Buffet City shut down indefinitely Immigration charges filed against co-owner
By CHRIS DETTRO STAFF WRITER
Published Friday, September 22, 2006
A popular local restaurant has been shut down indefinitely while authorities pursue charges that most of the employees were illegal aliens from either China or Mexico.
Xiang Hui Ye, 28, of the 3300 block of Gaines Mill Road, a co-owner of Buffet City, 1774 Wabash Ave., is being held by the U.S. Marshals Service until a detention hearing scheduled for today.
Hui Ye was charged in federal court Thursday with concealing or harboring illegal aliens and hiring or recruiting illegal aliens for employment.
Authorities said 16 employees of the restaurant also were taken into custody Wednesday. They face possible deportation to China and Mexico. Included are six Mexican men, two Chinese women and eight Chinese men.
Hui Ye, a Chinese citizen who was granted asylum in the United States, appeared before U.S. Magistrate Judge Byron Cudmore Thursday.
An affidavit by Brian Withers, a special agent with the Department of Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, alleges that Hui Ye hired illegal aliens to work at the restaurant from Jan. 15, 2005, to Sept. 11.
Hui Ye provided housing for the workers in apartments on Seven Pines Road and Gaines Mill Road near the restaurant, according to the affidavit. A review of Buffet City payroll information by an investigator for the U.S. Department of Labor determined that the restaurant had underpaid workers $266,366 over a two-year period, the affidavit says.
Agents also seized bank accounts in the names of Buffet City and Hui Ye and the contents of a safety deposit box in the name of Hui Ye and another individual.
Assistant U.S. attorney Patrick Chesley said the government will seek detention for Hui Ye and considers him a flight risk.
"He owns no real property and has no ties to any community in the United States," Chesley said.
The timing of the 4-year-old restaurant's shutdown was particularly stinging because the Illinois Times on Thursday named Buffet City as its readers' favorite buffet restaurant. Although Buffet City boasted a selection of more than 150 items, the Times recommended that patrons concentrate on the snow crab and raw and steamed seafood, which it called "a rock-bottom bargain."
However, because most of Buffet City's workers were illegal aliens and are now in custody, Chesley said he thinks it will be difficult for the restaurant to continue to operate.
The charges are the result of a criminal work site investigation by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement with assistance from the U.S. Department of Labor.
According to the affidavit, the investigation began Jan. 15, 2005, when senior special ICE agent Tom Merchant received a phone call from a man who said he had been fired from a job at Buffet City because he had told Hui Ye that he did not like working with illegal aliens.
The informant said about 22 illegal Chinese and Mexican restaurant employees lived with Hui Ye and in other nearby apartments provided by Hui Ye.
The restaurant was placed under surveillance later that month.
In April 2005, Merchant received a request for assistance from a U.S. Department of Labor investigator Fred Wrightman, who said he had received a complaint from a Buffet City employee about wage violations.
Some of the employees were interviewed later that month, and eight Hispanic employees told investigators they did not have to present any documents or complete any forms in order to be employed at the restaurant.
On May 4, the restaurant owners provided Wrightman with copies of employment eligibility verification forms for 14 Asian employees, but no forms for any Hispanic employees.
Two days later, the affidavit says, Wrightman told Merchant that the eight Hispanics who were interviewed on April 28 were being terminated on May 8.
The eight told investigators they were given until May 15 to vacate their apartment and said the restaurant owners told them they could be rehired if they could obtain fraudulent employment documents.
Authorities carried out an arrest operation near the restaurant and in the 1800 block of Seven Pines Road on Dec. 1, 2005. Five undocumented Mexican citizens were arrested, the affidavit says. All five had worked at Buffet City, and all five said they didn't have to provide any documents or complete any forms to work there. They said the restaurant owners provided them with an apartment.
Two of the men were taken to the restaurant the next day to get pay they were owed, and Hui Ye paid them their wages. Merchant asked Hui Ye whether he completed employment eligibility verification forms for his Mexican employees, and he allegedly said he did not because the workers did not have documents.
The employees were paid in cash, according to statements from the arrested workers and bank records.
Harboring illegal aliens is a federal felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison for each alien. Hiring or recruiting illegal aliens is a federal misdemeanor punishable by up to six months in prison and a fine of $3,000 for each illegal alien.
Chris Dettro can be reached at 788-1510 or chris.dettro@sj-r.com.
I would like to see them crack down on the resturaunts here in Maine. Little towns in Maine have been inundated with illegal workers.
Springfield, IL.
Note to original poster. When choosing topics for stories like this, please choose the state topic that fits. Otherwise, we won't know where this is happening. Thanks.
Same thing going on in my neck of the woods. No papers, they work for cash, and all live in the same house. This isnt just one time thing.
What areas hire illegals? I was going to vacation there but now forget it.
If this is true, why are the mayors of some cities that claim they are sanctuary cities for illegals not charged and tried for this crime?
Hopefully this will be occurring more frequently, and as the word gets out to the illegal population, maybe they'll begin deporting themselves. Hey, I can dream, can't I?
sw
And every business hiring them should be severely penalized because they are the real traitors of this country.
Throughout the state. Inland as well as the coast.
Who the heck eats in these places anyway? If you can get e-coli from a packaged bag of spinach think what you can get from these buffet type restaurants hiring illegal aliens!!!
Chinese restaurants in partucular are the worst as far as being dirty.
What state is Buffet City located in?
Great. But then Maine is full of cheap libs who won't pay livable wages to real Americans.
Spinach?
Great. But then Maine is full of cheap libs who won't pay livable wages to real Americans.
No Maine is overwhelmed with its leftist welfare policies and federal SSDI policies that make it easier to loaf than to work.
Nothing like the boomer trustfunders to really screw up a state.
I always have wondered how many of those Chinese restaunt workers are here legally
Same where I live. The local authorities shut down a popular Chinese buffet and arrested the owner and his illegal alien employees. Many of them were living at the owner's house, and he was working with a group that helped get illegals into the US.
Leni
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