On Sept. 2, agents with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement raided a St. Peters restaurant and arrested more than a dozen workers. The Golden Apple Buffet’s employees hailed from several countries, including China, Mexico and Indonesia. Some have now spent weeks detained and awaiting deportation.
But the raid did not reveal evidence of human trafficking or any criminal enterprise, said Jim Hacking, an immigration lawyer representing 10 workers.
The raid didn’t target just the Golden Apple Buffet. ICE agents used battering rams to enter homes in St. Charles where about 20 of the restaurant’s employees lived.
“Two of my clients were getting out of the shower, and the person knocking on the door had a gun pointed at them,” Hacking said. “It was a very intense situation.”
Nearly one month later, nine of Hacking’s clients have agreed to a “voluntary departure.” The completion of that plan has been delayed by the ongoing criminal case against the buffet’s two owners, Guo Liang Ye and De Jin Ye, both residents of St. Charles County.
The federal indictment is light on detail. The owners are charged with a single felony of bringing in and harboring aliens. They are accused of acting with “knowing and in reckless disregard of the fact that aliens had come to, entered and remained in the United States in violation of the law.” If convicted, the pair face a fine of up to $250,000 and 10 years in prison.
The press release from the U.S. Department of Justice made no mention of the workers or any illegal activities. Still, Hacking said he was compelled to investigate his clients’ living conditions. All of them had come to the U.S. from Indonesia.
Some had been in the country for a few months, others for years. “I was worried that these people were victims of human trafficking,” he said. But that’s not what he discovered. “Based on my conversations with everyone, I became convinced that they had found out about a job posting online, and they moved to St. Louis to take this job and to be able to live in that house.”
Although the indictment accuses the men of unlawfully remaining in the country, Hacking points out that they had all applied for visas. Eight had obtained work authorizations. All of them had made official pleas for asylum.
But those proceedings didn’t offer any protection on the day of the raid.
“People say all the time, ‘Why don't these immigrants just do things the right way?’” he noted. “Well, you know what my clients did? They went to the State Department, they paid a fee, they got a visa to the United States. When they got here, they applied for asylum, and after that, they applied for work authorization.
“And what did it get them? It got them dragged out of a shower at gunpoint, dragged into jail where they were sent to rot.”
Hacking contested some of the details alleged by neighbors, and published by Fox2, that described up to 20 people living in a single home in St. Charles. He said that the number was likely exaggerated and that the workers were spread over a total of four homes.
“I don't believe there were 20 people living in a house,” he said. “The reason I say that is because everyone that I talked to said they had their own room and their own bed.” Hacking acknowledged that the living conditions could constitute a housing violation.
“We can all agree that maybe you shouldn't have 12 people living in the house, and maybe there's housing codes in St. Peters that say you can't do that. Other than that, I think the government might have a hard time proving their case,” he said. “They thought they were going to find a place where everybody was undocumented and nobody had work authorization. I think they were surprised, at least with my clients, that the majority of them did have work authorizations.”
Hacking doesn’t represent all of the workers caught up in the raid. Although his clients were offered the choice of taking “voluntary deportations,” he said some of the workers are still being held in jail as potential witnesses.
Five of his clients have already left the country. He expects the other deportations will be carried out in the next couple of weeks.
Hacking sees the raid against the Golden Apple Buffett as part of the larger anti-immigration sweeps targeting individuals and businesses across the country. On Wednesday, ICE agents in Staunton, Illinois arrested a restaurant owner and detained him in the Ste. Genevieve jail, prompting hundreds to protest over the weekend.
“Making somebody stay in immigration detention is a very strong tool in their arsenal of getting people to leave the United States,” Hacking said. His clients spent weeks in the Ste. Genevieve jail, cut off from contact with their families and supporters.
These cases, he said, are spreading fear throughout the country.
“I can only imagine what people are going through,” he said. “Worried that they are going to get snapped up when they drop off their kids at school, or when they go to the doctor or they go to the gas station. It's just a really, really dark time.”
To hear the full conversation with Jim Hacking about the aftermath of the ICE raid, as well as an update on how the Trump administration's immigration policies are affecting international students, listen to “St. Louis on the Air” on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or YouTube, or click the play button below.
“St. Louis on the Air” brings you the stories of St. Louis and the people who live, work and create in our region. The show is produced by Miya Norfleet, Emily Woodbury, Danny Wicentowski, Elaine Cha and Alex Heuer. The production intern is Darrious Varner. The audio engineer is Aaron Doerr.
