Oklahoma senator says ICE arrests at Bricktown restaurant were not part of raid

OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR) — An Oklahoma City senator and immigration attorney says a raid did not occur inside a popular Bricktown restaurant, following viral reaction to federal immigration agents taking two employees into custody there on Sunday.

The incident happened Sunday morning at Pearl's Crabtown according to former employee Jada Robbins, who told News 4 she's kept in contact with several of her former co-workers.

"They were pretty shaken up, pretty frightened," said Robbins. "I went down there and had dinner and one of the employees came out and he was like, did you hear what happened this morning, and he said that two of the employees were taken there at the time."

Robbins says she was told the employees were taken by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents while on the job. A current employee shared their thoughts in a viral social media post saying that "ICE is raiding Bricktown" and "tell your loved ones to stay safe."

News 4 sat down with Oklahoma senator Michael Brooks-Jimenez on Monday for the second time in three days on the topic of immigration and raids. On Friday, News 4 shared a warning from Brooks-Jimenez and the Greater Oklahoma City Hispanic Chamber of Commerce about the negative impact spreading misinformation about false mass raids can have on undocumented communities.

Brooks-Jimenez says the incident at Pearl's Crabtown wasn't a raid, but a targeted operation.

"This is part of an existing program that already exists with ICE, which is called fugitive operations," said Brooks-Jimenez.

Brooks-Jimenez says the program typically targets those who have a criminal conviction or an outstanding order of deportation, and has been common throughout the past several presidential administrations.

"That's what occurred this time, is that they went and arrested this person while they were working at a restaurant," said Brooks-Jimenez. "ICE came in because they had a target identified to be able to come and arrest, and then there are other people they encounter that are undocumented, that they may be picked up as collateral."

Brooks-Jimenez says, what may be unusual to some is more resources being dedicated to the fugitive operations program under president Donald Trump, which will likely mean more frequent action like this incident.

"I just don't think it's fair," said Robbins. "Like, we're all humans."

A manager at Pearl's Crabtown told News 4 they had nothing to say about what happened.

News 4 also reached out to ICE for details on the operation but have not heard back as of Monday.