Case against Chinese restaurant owner sheds light on how Hispanic illegal immigrants find work

A federal case against a Chinese restaurant owner in Kentucky is shedding light on how Hispanic immigrants work in the country illegally, including what an investigator says are phone numbers for those immigrants to find work at Chinese restaurants nationwide.

The Lexington Herald-Leader reports that the owner of Asian Buffet in Shelbyville, 49-year-old Fei Zhou Tang, was charged with harboring people in the country illegally in a criminal complaint Thursday in Lexington federal court.

In an affidavit, U.S. State Department investigator Tracey Lunsford said one Hispanic immigrant whom she interviewed told her there used to be offices in Texas and Chicago for job referrals, but they switched to phones only after police raids. The Hispanic man, Salvador Salazar Gomez, said there “many phone numbers to call,” Lunsford wrote in the affidavit.

The affidavit says Tang housed immigrants in the country illegally in the other side of his duplex, and drove them to and from work. Tang has lawful permanent resident status.

When police searched Tang’s restaurant, employee Beth Tillman told officers that Hispanic immigrants used the number to find work and were charged about $700 to get a job, according to the affidavit.

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