7-state immigration raids nab big chain's dough crew

Nation's Restaurant News,  April 28, 2008  

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HOUSTON -- Spurring concerns about growing crackdowns on alleged immigration violations, federal agents raided restaurants in several states on the same day this month, including arrests at a commissary for the 200-unit Shipley Do-Nuts chain.

In that 5 a.m. raid here, officers in more than 50 federal and Harris County vehicles executed a search warrant at the Shipley dough-manufacturing center and took 20 suspected undocumented individuals into custody, including a juvenile and some who apparently were living at the facility.

The chain, which has branches in Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee and Texas, issued a statement citing its 72-year history in Houston and said Shipley "makes every effort to comply with very complicated immigration laws, and is currently cooperating with authorities in an ongoing investigation."

Immigration agents also made arrests the same day at a poultry plant in northern Arkansas and conducted other workplace raids in Georgia, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia.

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