Feds raid Zipps locations across Valley, draw loud protests

On Monday afternoon, federal agents raided several Zipps Sports Grill locations in the Valley. Social media filled with photos of armed and masked federal agents at several Zipps locations, including the locations at Park Central, 32nd Street and Shea Boulevard and 16th Street and Bethany Home. The raid at Park Central drew a crowd of roughly 200 protesters, leading to more agents descending on the site.

According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Arizona, agents with Homeland Security Investigations — a division of the Department of Homeland Security — served federal warrants “at 15 locations throughout the Phoenix area.” The warrants are being served as “part of a months-long criminal investigation,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office said in a release, and the warrants “are being executed as part of a criminal investigation into felony violations of federal law.”

The release did not name Zipps specifically or say what violations are being investigated. There are 14 Zipps locations in the Valley. Messages to the U.S. Attorney’s Office and Goldman Management Inc., the entity that manages the Zipps chain, were not returned. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which includes HSI, did not immediately respond to an email about how many people, if any, were detained in the raids.

Federal agents have hit other restaurants in the Valley and Arizona since Donald Trump reentered the White House. Last year, agents arrested the proprietor of the Taco Loko bus, who later pleaded guilty to employing undocumented workers. In Tucson, federal agents raided a popular taqueria, sparking a protest that resulted in Rep. Adelita Grijalva and other protesters being hit with pepper spray. Agents also raided four Colt Grill locations in Northern Arizona and a sushi chain in the Valley, both for allegedly employing workers who lacked legal status.

At the Park Central Zipps location, federal immigration agents arrived to serve the warrant at around 4:45 p.m. Organizers, local community members and gym-goers finishing their workouts at the nearby EoS Fitness soon joined the scene to protest the presence of immigration agents in the community. An hour later, agents exited the restaurant with no one in custody. All of the chairs were flipped up on the tables inside the now-closed Zipps. Outside, more than 200 people had joined the scene.

Also present was Rep. Yassamin Ansari, who told Phoenix New Times she was on her way to a meeting at Park Central when she received a text from a friend about the raid. She’s been a vocal advocate against ICE activity in Phoenix and previously told New Times, “We don’t want ICE here,” adding that ICE should “stay out of Phoenix.” 

Protesters surrounded more than six federal vehicles on the narrow two-lane road in Park Central’s shopping center, yelling at immigration agents as they attempted to get into their cars. Agents appeared to struggle to get into the vehicles due to an apparent key issue, which significantly delayed their exit.

“Is the money worth your soul?” one protester yelled. Another man bent down to slowly let the air out of one of the agents’ vehicles. One protester wore a black ski mask and carried what appeared to be a rifle. A helicopter surrounded the scene from above.

Chants of “SHAME ON YOU!” and “Leave the workers alone!” echoed throughout the growing crowd. Middle fingers and cell phones recording the scene were everywhere. 

A few minutes after 6 p.m., roughly a dozen agents — sporting riot gear and gas masks and holding pepperball guns, rifles and mace — arrived at the scene with more vehicles, sirens blaring. Protesters met agents with heckles of “pigs incoming, pigs incoming.” Agents pushed protesters onto the sidewalk, brushed by them with their vehicles and shot a few pepperballs into the ground. Still, as federal immigration vehicles left the shopping center, protesters walked the geared-up agents back toward their trucks, phones recording.

By 6:15 p.m., all federal agents left the scene.

“People don’t want hate in our community. People are standing up to it. People showed up,” said Jacob Martinez, a local organizer who is running for a seat in the Arizona Legislature, as he stood in front of the now-closed bar and grill. “We don’t want you. We don’t support hate in our community.” 

Another onlooker, Sandy Pena, was visiting from Pennsylvania and looking for a good happy hour spot when he came across the raid. “This is crazy,” he told New Times. Elizabeth Grigg, a 77-year-old who was sporting a white posterboard sign around her neck that read “ICE = American Gestapo,” was at another protest in her neighborhood in midtown when she heard about the ICE activity at Park Central. 

“Midtown is a pretty tight-knit community. We pretty much stick together,” Grigg told New Times. “What’s happening in Minneapolis could happen here. It’s horrible.”

The Zipps location at 32nd Street and Shea Boulevard drew about 50 people as night fell on Monday. Several people reported learning about the raids on the Citizen app. Others — who stood around the yellow caution tape perimeter and further back between parked cars in the shopping center that also includes the restaurant 32 Shea, a Walgreens and an Ace Hardware — were in the complex and heard the commotion. 

Many in the crowd had their phones out, taking videos and photos. Some were live-streaming the scene on social media. At least six federal agents patrolled the perimeter of the building, masked and wearing tactical gear, some with tear gas launchers.

Just before 7 p.m., the agents pulled down the yellow tape and walked toward the back of the building, where they left in several SUVs and trucks, heading south on 32nd Street. People who were gathered ran toward the sidewalk, yelling “Fuck you” and “pussies,” giving the agents the finger. One agent reportedly rolled down a window and fired a round of tear gas at the group.

Bryan Chaparro was among the people on the street when the tear gas was fired.

“If it wasn’t for my glasses, I would probably be blind,” he said. “I was able to turn, so it hit my glasses but it went down my throat.”

The evening was “pretty peaceful” until then, he said. “It’s not right what they’re doing. They’re doing it for a paycheck. They don’t know the magnitude of harm they’re doing not just to families like us but the community,” he said. The 29-year-old was incredulous about the assertions by the Trump administration that these raids and crackdowns in American cities are about capturing dangerous criminals.

“They raided a Zipps today. Are you telling me that the next El Chapo works in their kitchen?” he asked, using the nickname of the Sinaloa drug cartel head Joaquín Guzmán. “There’s no way. They’re just hurting people.”

Brandon Easley was meeting his girlfriend’s father for coffee at 32 Shea. It was the first time the two had met. Soon, they heard people yelling “F Ice, F Trump, the full nine yards,” Easley said, standing with his girlfriend Kassia Horton in front of a car parked at 32 Shea.

Easley tries to stay “out of the mess of everything.” On Monday night, he had a front-row seat. 

“Nothing crazy, just people voicing their opinion,” he said before the agents left the Zipps and tear-gassed the crowd. “Just sitting here watching the show. It’s just weird to see it in our backyard.”

Easley said he hoped to “see us go to a place of peace again.”

“All I can do and pray for is for peace and everyone’s safety and well-being,” he said. “It’s definitely weird times we’re living in.”

One woman, who declined to be identified, was there to find out what happened to two family friends. After asking around the crowd, she believed they had been taken into custody by the federal agents on the scene. She was waiting for their daughter to arrive so they could move their car, which had been left at the restaurant. The woman believed the two, a couple, worked in the kitchen.

“All they do is work, you know?” she said. “So much for getting criminals.” 

She said her mother and sister work at a different Zipps location but were not scheduled to work today. They believe “all of their friends were taken,” the woman said, including a minor.

This is a developing story and will be updated.