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April 28, 2011· scvtalk.com · WordPress (SCVTalk 3.0) · Wayback capture

Chuy’s owners busted by Feds for hiring illegal immigrants

By Jeff — Jeff Wilson

Image not recoveredchuys.jpg

Ouch:

The father and son owners of a regional Mexican restaurant chain, along with the company’s accountant, will be arraigned in federal court in Tucson Thursday on tax and immigration violations contained in a 19-count indictment stemming from a lengthy probe by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).

Mark Evenson, 58, of Paradise Valley, Ariz.; his son, Christopher Evenson, 39, of Oro Valley, Ariz., owners of Chuy’s Mesquite Broiler restaurants with outlets in Arizona and California; and an accountant for the chain, Diane Strehlow, 47, of Tempe, Ariz., are charged with a variety of criminal violations, including the unlawful hiring and harboring of illegal aliens, conspiracy to defraud the IRS and tax evasion. If convicted of all the charges, Mark Evenson faces up to 86 years in prison and a $5.33 million fine; Christopher Evenson faces up to 81 years in prison and a $5.08 million fine; and, Strehlow faces a maximum prison term of 40 years and a $2 million fine.

Chuy’s sole restaurant in the SCV is on the Old Road in Sunset Pointe. It opened shortly after the earthquake in 1995 and has been a hangout of mine. The restaurant offers decent baja-style food and a good amount of beers on tap. Usually bars become affiliated with one type of repeat customer, but Chuy’s managed to attract college kids, sports junkies, and bikers in equal parts, sometimes on the same night!

Unfortunately it is allegedly a restaurant chain built on the backs of undocumented workers (along with cute female servers) by a pair of greedy and cynical owners. The ICE Press release goes on:

The Evensons and Strehlow were arrested Wednesday after HSI, IRS and Department of Labor agents executed 20 search warrants related to the case, including 15 at Chuy’s restaurants in Arizona and California.

According to the court document, the Evensons engaged in a pattern and practice of hiring aliens knowing they were not authorized for employment in the United States. On multiple occasions, Mark Evenson stands accused of personally directing employees not to run personal information for illegal aliens through the government, because the government would “kick it back” or would “come and pick them up.” When he received a complaint about illegal aliens working at a restaurant in Lake Havasu City, Mark Evenson allegedly told an employee that “throwing some American people in there,” might stop the complaints. When Christopher Evenson was advised by an employee that a person Christopher Evenson wanted to hire (who was working at another restaurant) was an illegal alien, Christopher Evenson replied that the other restaurant did “the same thing.”

The irony that Chuy’s owners hail from Arizona, home of the strictest anti-immigrant legislation in the country, is delicious, just like their California tacos.

More on this from REUTERS

Comments (40)

  1. PetzApril 28, 2011 at 5:19 am
    Payback for donating to the GOP-using the Justice Dept. for political purpose-Chicago style politics-does not surprise at all. http://query.nictusa.com/cgi-bin/qind/
  2. spineflower2April 28, 2011 at 7:17 am
    Seems apropo that the link returns nothing but an “internal error #1″ message….
  3. LindaApril 28, 2011 at 6:30 am
    Now they need to do the same thing at every other restaurant and fast food chain, and maybe, just maybe, the unemployment situation would ease.
  4. Gang FangApril 28, 2011 at 7:23 am
    Yeah, I’m sure the people of Santa Clarita would be chomping at the bit to do the work these men and women do.
  5. Cheryl PhillipsApril 28, 2011 at 7:47 am
    You know who would want these jobs? The legal immigrants that are already here………
  6. Gang FangApril 28, 2011 at 8:32 am
    True. I just get sick of the argument that Joe Six Pack (eat a bag of scabs, Palin) is fighting for a dishwasher spot for less than minimum wage.
  7. IHeartSCVApril 28, 2011 at 9:11 am
    I agree that Joe won’t fight for that job, but his teenagers might (or could be encouraged to if their parents didn’t just hand them everything). My first job was of the minium wage menial labor variety. Also, you wrote last week that you want Palin to “douche with fire” and now you want her to “eat a bag of scabs.” In both instances, Palin hadn’t been mentioned until you brought her up. Why do you think the topic of Palin doing gross things preoccupies you so?
  8. spineflower2April 28, 2011 at 9:28 am
    Penis envy.
  9. Gang FangApril 28, 2011 at 9:53 am
    Yes. I envy her massive member.
  10. DubiousApril 29, 2011 at 6:48 am
    Many people who can’t make legitimate arguments on issues, resort to insults and name calling.
  11. Gang FangApril 29, 2011 at 2:07 pm
    Yeah, man.
  12. BertaApril 28, 2011 at 12:04 pm
    Cheryl you are right on! Legal immigrants accept these jobs to support themselves and their families particularly while they are going to school or learning better English, etc. Additionally, persons with various disabilities who are still able and want to work would take these jobs and apparently enjoy the social interactions and confidence boosting aspects of being gainfully employed.
  13. Timothy Myers SR.April 28, 2011 at 2:57 pm
    Cheryl: You raise Immigration Myth Number 8042. There is currently NO PROGRAM for an immigrant who would take manual labor to legally enter the United States. The only active program is the HI-B program which restricts visas to educated expatriates who are actually sponsored by a US employer. (This is generally the method used to employee expatriate graduates of US universities.) I don’t see the software engineers graduating from the UC system applying to work at Chuy’s anytime soon.
  14. MikeApril 28, 2011 at 3:04 pm
    True story: last night, following the victory of team Happy Un-Birther Day, we learned that one of the longtime Chuy’s waitresses was leaving Chuy’s to work for an investment bank doing mergers & acquisitions.
  15. Cheryl PhillipsApril 30, 2011 at 8:19 am
    Tim – you assume all legal immigrants that are already here are in our university systems studying to become professional engineers, doctors, etc. Not the case…….
  16. Timothy Myers SR.May 2, 2011 at 11:48 am
    Cheryl: If you know an immigrant who is not here on a student of HI B Visa that came here in the last 20 years, there status is very likely irregular. If they are a green card holder and have been here that long, why aren’t they a citizen?
  17. 4eyedsueApril 28, 2011 at 4:25 pm
    my kid needs a job…
  18. LindaApril 28, 2011 at 5:34 pm
    Mine too.
  19. LindaApril 28, 2011 at 5:33 pm
    Don’t be so sure. There are plenty of people who want jobs and would be willing to do that work. In response to its big hiring promotion recently, McDonald’s franchises received more than 1 million applications. They ended up hiring 62,000 of those people. http://www.myfoxphoenix.com/dpps/money/mcdonalds-hiring-push-lands-62000-employees-dpgonc-20110428-fc_12966941 One out of every 188 Floridians applied for a job there. http://www2.tbo.com/news/business/2011/apr/28/one-in-every-188-floridians-applied-for-a-mcdonald-ar-203328/ And in Fort Waye, Indiana, 3,000 people applied for work at McDonald’s that day. http://www.wane.com/dpp/news/local/mcdonalds-hires-over-300 The real myth is that Americans are too proud to take a “McJob.”
  20. yourwebguruApril 28, 2011 at 8:18 am
    But then those poor business owners would have to comply with state and federal employment guidelines, pay at least a minimum wage, overtime and (GASP!) taxes AND provide Workers Compensation coverage, which are all part of that overreaching, big government scheme that is bent on destroying small business. (Please note the sarcasm in my statement.)
  21. MikeApril 28, 2011 at 8:34 am
    In other Chuy’s news, Happy Un-birther Day, named in honor of John Ramirez and Kevin Korenthal, scored a resounding victory at Chuy’s trivia night yesterday.
  22. ScottEApril 28, 2011 at 12:07 pm
    High five …
  23. Bill ReynoldsApril 28, 2011 at 10:17 am
    Realizing full well that young folks do not respect a conservative point of view, I’m laying it out here anyway. As a youngster growing up in SFV back in the 60′s before the women’s movement and rampant illegal immigration, American citizens held all construction type jobs… generally, teenagers worked at McDonalds, the carwash, food markets, etc. During these past 40 year, thanks to the left wing, Americans have been conditioned to take soft jobs and/or dependence on gov’t while immigrants have taken work once appreciated by regular blue collar citizens.
  24. yourwebguruApril 28, 2011 at 11:50 am
    Come on, now. We know that the trickle-down principles of Reaganomics made us nice, upstanding white Americans more upwardly mobile and eligible for better paying jobs that were created by the corporations benefitting from the reduced taxes under the great Ronald, by which we were able to afford to let our teenagers go to school without having to earn a living. Thusly, the jobs formerly held by “we kids” went to ESL adults who had to try and earn a living working 2 or 3 full time menial jobs to put food on their tables. We’re only complaining now because all those cushy jobs afforded to us by the wonder years of the 80s are now long gone. But I guess if we turn back the clock on the whole silly “Women’s Lib” thing and get those bra burners back into the kitchen where they belong, the world WILL be a better place!
  25. Bill ReynoldsApril 28, 2011 at 12:57 pm
    Wow. That almost made sense. You do realize that our gov’t has already grown by 10% under Prez B. Hussein.
  26. yourwebguruApril 28, 2011 at 1:17 pm
    During Ronald Reagan’s second year in office home loan interest rates hovered at 15% and unemployment was 9.6%.
  27. Bill ReynoldsApril 28, 2011 at 1:41 pm
    Per a Gallup Poll today, only 27% believe our economy is growing. Bad news for the Prez.
  28. PetzApril 28, 2011 at 1:49 pm
    The trend line was down for both. Paul Volker was pulling the plug on the printing press to break the economy out of stagflation and put an end to the inflationary expectations were caused economic distortions. Obama is no Reagan…by a very long shot.
  29. BertaApril 28, 2011 at 12:57 pm
    Bill, “before the women’s movement”? Oh, right, when some of you guys thought you could tell us to sit down, shut up, and maybe we “girls” would simply acquiesce and stay at home and ask for a spending allowance rather than earn our own money. That is the problem with making general statements like that one I do not think so. My mother, father, brothers and I, we all worked even as kids and we earned our own money. I was born in the 50’s, so obviously was growing up in the 50’s and 60’s Bill. You are only a few years older and I grew up in Los Angeles and Reseda in the SFV. Illegal aliens now take many of the jobs we worked as kids and my parents worked when they first legally entered the USA, so I agree that is a problem.
  30. Bill ReynoldsApril 28, 2011 at 1:32 pm
    I only referred to the women’s movement because I’ve heard it repeatedly stated over the years by women that many were sucked in to believing their traditional roles of mother, home keeper & financial manager were less important. I gew up in Reseda also.
  31. Gang FangApril 28, 2011 at 9:21 pm
    Berta, that post was like a tasty donut dipped in dog crap. I loved the first half.
  32. BertaApril 28, 2011 at 10:35 pm
    Gang fang served up just for you!
  33. Gang FangApril 29, 2011 at 7:01 pm
    Saving you the shat half.
  34. BertaApril 29, 2011 at 10:48 pm
    Gang Fang thanks but that is just more of what comes out of your mouth, you keep it to add to your collection.
  35. Gang FangApril 30, 2011 at 12:27 pm
    I’m collecting half shat upon donuts? Baseless accusation! I collect belt buckles & scalped mullets, exclusively.
  36. harryhoudiniApril 28, 2011 at 12:49 pm
    In-N-Out & Chik-Fil-A seem to do a mighty job of serving a decent meal at a decent price with above standard service and employees. Leaving their political and religious views out of my hair (where they belong), which can be debated ad nauseam from 3rd person self-identifiers and SCV arm-chair/keyboard warriors here on SCVTalk, I frequent both establishments not because of the title of their religious texts nor the party with which they affiliate but for the value proposition provided by their food and service. Seems like Chuy’s would have benefited from more artistic punctuation in it’s name; the apostrophe has proven to be the weaker link when compared to the dash.
  37. BertaApril 30, 2011 at 8:12 pm
    Gang Fang, come and get it…
  38. Gang FangApril 30, 2011 at 9:59 pm
    Ohhhh yeah, baby. I love it when you tease me so…..
  39. BertaMay 1, 2011 at 10:59 am
    Gang Fang any encounter between you and I would definitely not result in any “happy ending”, even though I must say, you do appear to be a real masochist so perhaps…
  40. Gang FangMay 1, 2011 at 7:57 pm
    SCORE! Berta is down with the ball gag! Woo!

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