SCOTTSDALE, AZ — Nearly three dozen people were arrested during Monday’s federal raids at Zipps Sports Grill locations Valleywide, and now ABC15 is hearing from two of the men detained, as well as their family, in an exclusive interview.
During the hours-long Homeland Security investigation on Monday, a total of 35 people were arrested. Bernice Medina waited outside of one of the Scottsdale locations for word on her dad and brother.
"It's devastating,” Medina told ABC15 at the time. "They're working, trying to provide for their family. That’s not a crime!”
That night, Medina learned both of her family members were detained by federal agents at one Zipps location in Scottsdale and another in Tempe.
Right now, Leo Medina Estrada, 52, and Carlos Medina, 33, are at ICE’s Eloy Detention Center.
Medina didn’t hear from them for two days, until they called her from the detention center on Wednesday.
During that first call, she let ABC15’s Jane Caffrey ask questions.
"When you were working there at Zipps and the agents came in, tell me about what happened,” Caffrey asked.
"They automatically put us in handcuffs, they automatically put our backs against the wall,” Carlos said. "They automatically racially profiled. I want justice.”
"Many lawmakers have tried to get into the Eloy Detention Center to see the conditions there. Many times they've been turned away,” Caffrey continued. "Can you describe to us what the conditions are like?"
"We're stably fine. We're getting treated honestly,” Carlos answered.
They are set to be there until court appearances in February, when the family says they will fight deportation. Right now, Bernice is working to get them out on bond.
“It was so sad that Tuesday, every Tuesday, we come and visit my dad, and my daughter knows,” Bernice said, sharing a picture of her father with her four-year-old child. "And yesterday she asked me 'Where's ‘Buelito?' Her grandpa. Because how is she supposed to understand?”
Her brother, Carlos, is also a parent.
"Your 12-year-old daughter, what message do you want to give her?” Caffrey asked him.
"That I love her. And her Daddy will be home soon,” Carlos answered.
The Medinas say they were stunned by the operation.
“How am I doing?” Leo Medina Estrada said in Spanish. “Very sad and deceived.”
Medina Estrada says that after working as a kitchen manager and at Zipps for two decades, he feels betrayed.
"After giving 20 years to the boss, and we couldn't do anything,” he told Caffrey in Spanish over the phone.
"To the people who say, well, they were undocumented, they need to go: What do you say to those people?” Caffrey asked Bernice Medina.
"It's sad that a lot of people don't have compassion. I remember as a child, like I knew that this could happen, and I was scared. I grew up being scared,” she said. "And a lot of people that have the privilege, their ancestors migrated here at an earlier time, and they were born here. They don't understand that aspect and how there really isn’t a straight line to get in here.”
The investigation is not over. HSI says 15 search warrants were executed as part of a probe into employing undocumented immigrants, identity theft, and document fraud. The 35 people arrested are suspected of being in the U.S. illegally.
Zipps says the company is fully cooperating with authorities.
