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Viral: Ohio guy upset at other diners’ responses as ICE raids favorite Mexican restaurant

January 28, 2025 | | Print Article

An Ohio TikToker has gone viral for complaining about an immigration raid that occurred at his favorite Mexican restaurant.

The TikToker, Matt Daydreams, uploaded a video on Monday showing him outside the Cilantro Taqueria restaurant in Cleveland Heights.

“I’m at Cilantro Taqueria, and I can confirm that the place is closed,” he said in the clip. “I can’t say I’ve talked to anyone who knows any more than me. This is all based on social media posts. I think I’m going to sit here and just talk to people as they walk by, and see if I can find anyone that seems to give a f–k about the people. So far I’m batting 0-3.”

“A couple of times I said ‘this is really bad, this is terrible, I don’t like this at all,’ and people — one guy shrugged his shoulders and said ‘it’s an unfortunate situation.’ Another guy said something like ‘don’t do bad things,'” he added.

Listen below or access the original TikTok here:

According to the Cleveland Scene, immigration authorities carried out a raid across Northeast Ohio on Sunday. One of the locations hit was Cilantro Taqueria.

“That arrest [the one at Cilantro] happened around 4:42 p.m. on Sunday, the witness to the raid [said], who saw one of the workers being escorted out to a white van,” the paper notes.

The city of Cleveland Heights has for its part wiped its hands clean of what happened at Cilantro Taqueria.

“The City of Cleveland Heights did not have prior knowledge of, was not involved in, nor did it cooperate or coordinate with federal officials from ICE in a raid on Cilantro Taqueria,” the city said in a statement.

Leftists have been leaving floral bouquets outside the restaurant. One bouquet was reportedly left next to a sign that read “Te queremos y te apoyamos” (“We love you and support you”).

Patrick Espinosa, an immigration attorney in Painesville, told the Cleveland Scene that most illegals have nothing to worry about, so long as they have a work permit and haven’t committed any crimes.

“Most of the calls I’ve gotten are from people who are freaking out who shouldn’t be freaking out,” he said. “If you have a work permit, or are in some kind of [immigration] proceeding, you’ll be fine. As long as you’re a law-abiding citizen, you’re protected by asylum laws.”

Meanwhile, over in Cleveland, city council member Jasmin Santana expressed outrage to Signal Cleveland about the lack of protests and statements from locals about these raids.

“I’m going to tell you, I am not going to be quiet about this issue,” she said. “I’m going to organize. I’m going to protest.”

She may do as she likes, but the fact remains that the majority of Americans support the rounding up and deportation of illegal aliens.

One local resident in Cleveland Heights told Cleveland.com that she witnessed up to six people being taken from Cilantro Taqueria.

“Shae Haynes, 38, said she was walking her dog after work on Sunday evening and saw officers put five or six people handcuffed in the back of a white van,” according to Cleveland.com.

Acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove stressed that immigration authorities will continue doing their jobs.

“We will support everyone at the federal, state, and local levels who joins this critical mission to take back our communities,” he said in a statement. “We will use all available tools to address obstruction and other unlawful impediments to our efforts to protect the homeland. Most importantly, we will not rest until the work is done.”

Vivek Saxena
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