LIBERTY, Mo. (WDAF) — One week after federal agents made an unannounced visit to El Potro Mexican Café in Liberty, Missouri, their community came to help the restaurant on Valentine’s Day.
“Let’s focus on Valentine’s Day… and help out in the kitchen side of things because this is a very busy day on Valentine’s Day for restaurants,” said Jackson County Legislator Manny Abarca.
Abarca and others didn’t come to just show their support at El Potro, they came to be put to work.
“When we asked them what they needed, this is what they needed,” Abarca said.
“They needed help immediately, as 12 of their dedicated employees were taken from them.”
Last week, restaurant staff said that Homeland Security Agents surrounded El Potro, before detaining and leaving with 12 employees. Clay County Sheriff Will Aikin told FOX4, at the time, that the agents had come to the restaurant to serve a warrant for a single person.
El Potro closed another location in order to staff their Liberty store, which stayed open. Now, Abarca and others are helping out around the restaurant on one of their busiest days of the year.
Abarca says it’s time for local leaders to step up about decisions being handed down from the federal level.
“Local officials — I think now more than ever — are going to have to step up to the plate and do this for a myriad of issues right now. Not just for the Latino community, or for immigration broadly, but for any federal issue that is now coming down that challenges our current existence,” he said. “There is some level of accountability that folks in Liberty and in the Clay County community should be asking of their own elected officials. And if anyone’s going to show them how to do it, I’m happy to help.”
Neighbors and Liberty residents who offered their support on Friday brought signs that read “Immigration Built This Nation” and “We Support Immigrants and Refugees.”
One of those signs was held by Laura Gitterman, an English teacher who regularly works with immigrants.
“Unfortunately, I’m not surprised because I fear that something like this would be in the works and would come to fruition,” she told FOX4.
She says her students have been worried for weeks about operations like this, and some have expressed their fears to her.
“I’ve had students ask me for their parents, where can they be adopted if the parents get deported?” she said.
“I have had students saying, ‘I’m carrying my papers with me to school because I’m afraid ICE is coming. How many windows, how many doors do we have in school? Will I be safe?’ And then when I heard that this happened in Liberty and I’m from Liberty, Missouri, I felt like I needed to take a stand and show the support and solidarity for my community.”
