Tensions remain high in San Diego after last week’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement work raids at two Italian restaurants that ended with federal agents using flash-bang grenades against residents protesting the operations. Elected officials reacted with outrage.
The incidents occurred Friday when heavily armed Homeland Security Investigations agents executed search warrants at Buona Forchetta and Enoteca Buona Forchetta in South Park, a serene and tree-lined neighborhood with popular restaurants, according to immigration and city officials.
Yasmeen Pitts O’Keefe, a spokesperson for HSI, an agency under ICE, said the warrants were related to alleged “violations of hiring and harboring illegal aliens and false statements.”
She said four people living in the country illegally were taken into custody. Citing an ongoing investigation, she provided no other details.
In a statement, Buona Forchetta said it was working with its attorneys to locate and support its employees and their families. It said it was also providing support to its staff who witnessed and experienced the incident firsthand.
O’Keefe said as immigration agents were serving the court-authorized warrants, a large crowd began to gather, chanting “Shame!” and eventually preventing federal agents from leaving the area.
“The demonstrators became unruly and as a result less lethal noise flash diversionary devices were deployed to allow law enforcement to exit the scene as safely as possible,” O’Keefe said. “When gatherings like these are formed, it not only places law enforcement in danger but also the demonstrators and onlookers attempting to impede law enforcement activity.”
Videos taken by demonstrators and bystanders have since circulated on social media. They show dozens of residents demanding federal agents to leave the neighborhood while cursing at them and calling them “Nazis” and “fascists.” They also show residents standing in front of a silver Chevy SUV, prompting a federal agent to use a flash-bang grenade to disperse the crowd but with no effect.
At some point, five federal agents, most of them armed with assault rifles, approached the crowd as the government vehicles reversed and exited through another street.
San Diego city officials denounced the operation and questioned the use of rifles and stun grenades for a worksite enforcement raid, which ultimately led to the public’s response.
“Federal actions like these are billed as a public safety measure, but it had the complete opposite effect, “ San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria said in a statement. “What we saw undermines trust and creates fear in our community.”
“This was an unnecessary and alarming show of force deployed by those federal agents at a restaurant in a residential neighborhood,” Councilmember Stephen Whitburn, whose district includes South Park, told The Times. “Setting aside the debate over immigration policy, I would like to know the justification for sending dozens of agents, wearing masks, carrying machine guns and handcuffing all the workers to execute a warrant for somebody who might be undocumented. Are you serious?”
“Last Friday was completely unnecessary,” he added, “and residents had every right to be furious about what they were witnessing and to make their anger known, and they did that, and I’m proud of it.”
Councilmember Sean Elo-Rivera echoed that statement and called on a collective response against what he said was “state-sponsored terrorism.”
“I’ve seen firsthand the pain and trauma caused when our neighbors are targeted by aggressive, military-style federal enforcement — whether it’s parents arrested while dropping their kids at school, residents deported while attending court, or workers ambushed while doing their jobs at local restaurants,” he said. “When ICE agents stormed Buona Forchetta with military-style weapons, that wasn’t safety — it was an attempt to terrorize San Diegans into compliance.”
In a post on the social media platform X, Elo-Rivera’s posted a picture of federal agents with the word “terrorism” written over it. That post caught the attention of Stephen Miller, the Homeland Security advisor and deputy chief of staff to President Trump.
“We are living in the age of leftwing domestic terrorism. They are openly encouraging violence against law enforcement to aid and abet the invasion of America,” Miller wrote on X.
Whitburn said he is a supporter of law enforcement and pointed to the professionalism of the San Diego police officers and sheriff’s deputies who oftentimes take down criminals without, he said, having to use the amount of force used by federal agents last week.
“I doubt there was any need for that many agents at that restaurant on Friday,” he said. “And that begs the question, if it wasn’t necessary, why the big show of force? Was it to create fear? Was it to intimidate residents who live in the area? Is that what we want our federal government to be doing?
Buona Forchetta said in its statement that it was grateful for the outpouring of support from residents and its customers.
“Buona Forchetta has always been, at its core, a family,” it wrote. “We have built our spaces on trust, dignity, and care for one another. We stand together now and always.”
