When she got to work for her shift at El Toro Loco Mexican Bar & Grill in Lenexa on Wednesday afternoon, Corales saw the handwritten “closed” sign on the restaurant’s front door.
At first, she was confused. But Corales later learned that her co-workers had been detained by federal immigration agents only a few hours beforehand. The Star agreed to not publish her full name over concerns for her family’s safety.
Earlier Wednesday, federal immigration agents from Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), a unit of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), had arrested at least 11 people — seven in Kansas City, Kansas, and at least four in Lenexa — who worked at two separate El Toro Loco locations.
In the Lenexa restaurant, the agents had left behind a warrant signed by a judge authorizing them to seize records and documents “relating to harboring, human smuggling, or labor exploitation.” The warrant did not name any individuals…