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Casa Fiesta harbored illegals, US charges
The former owner of the South Side restaurant faces federal charge.
CLEVELAND — A U.S. attorney has charged a Norwalk, Ohio, man with harboring illegal aliens after federal agents arrested 58 undocumented workers in simultaneous raids at eight Casa Fiesta Mexican restaurants in Ohio, including one in Youngstown.
Ramon J. Ornelas, 42, was charged with eight counts of harboring or concealing illegal aliens, thee counts of mail fraud and seven counts of subscribing to a false tax return.
The charges, filed last week, stem from July 23, 2008, raids, in which U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrested 58 undocumented Mexican nationals working at the restaurants, including 11 at the East Midlothian Boulevard, Youngstown, establishment. No arraignment date has yet been set for Ornelas.
Ornelas was the principal owner of the Casa Fiestas in Youngstown, Vermillion, Ashland, Norwalk, Fremont, Oberlin, Oregon and Sandusky, the U.S. attorney said.
Ornelas was charged through an 18-count information, which is a formal accusation by a prosecutor charging someone with a crime. An information may only be used if the defendant waives indictment by a grand jury.
The filing of an information usually means the defendant is cooperating with authorities and agrees to be found guilty of the charges.
The information alleges that the restaurants regularly employed undocumented workers, sometimes providing them places to live, and paid them in cash without withholding taxes for the IRS.
Ornelas is charged with filing false forms that didn’t claim the undocumented workers and under-reported the tax owed to the IRS.
He’s also charged with mail fraud for allegedly filing false reports with the state, which under-reported the number of workers and the unemployment insurance tax owed to the state.
As the Youngstown restaurant reopened a week after the raid, some of those arrested were still being held in Ohio and others had returned to Mexico.
When that restaurant reopened, Moises Ayala-Garcia, who described himself as a partner in the business, said he didn’t know those arrested were here illegally and that all had been replaced with legal workers.
ICE and the IRS were assisted in the year-long investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor.
The case is being prosecuted by David O. Bauer, assistant U.S. attorney. He seeks forfeiture of $62,546 seized at the restaurants in the raids.