SAN ANTONIO – We’re learning more about why agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigations conducted investigations at a popular tamales restaurant this week.
Uniformed and plain-clothed officers with the FBI and the San Antonio Police Department gathered at the Delia’s located in the 13500 block of Hausman Pass near Loop 1604 on Wednesday morning as well as at Delia’s restaurants in Pharr and in McAllen.
The FBI confirmed they were involved in “court authorized law enforcement activity” but did not give details about what that entailed.
But KSAT has learned that Delia’s is named in a federally filed lawsuit over employee wages.
The original lawsuit was filed in Hidalgo County last October on behalf of 26 former employees.
The lawsuit lists Delia’s Tamales’ parent company, Del-Gar Foods Delgar Foods LLC, as the defendant and states that Delia’s “robbed thousands” from the workers over a two-and-a-half year period through social security fraud and threats and intimidation.
It alleges that the company “created a scheme” by helping the named employees get fake social security numbers so they could work at the restaurant.
Delia’s made social security deductions, but those funds were sent back to Delia’s when the Social Security office couldn’t match the numbers to the workers, the lawsuit alleges.
The civil lawsuit was moved to federal court and refiled in November 2023 as a lawsuit under the Fair Labor Standards Act and accused the restaurant of human trafficking.
“These exploited workers fall prey to schemes that pay below minimum wage, fail to pay overtime, supply the people with false documents to commit fraud on Homeland Security, and then terminate those employees when the scheme becomes public - or threaten them with informing immigration authorities,” the lawsuit states.
In addition to the alleged fraudulent Social Security withholdings, the employees said they sometimes worked more than 70 hours a week without being paid an overtime rate.
MyRGV.com reported that recent court filings alleged that the restaurant owner, Delia Lubin, assigned some employees to work as her personal house cleaners.
The former employees want a jury trial and are asking to be paid back wages, including overtime plus attorney’s fees and damages, “at the highest rate allowable by law.”
The San Antonio Delia’s restaurant opened in July 2020 as the company’s first location to open outside the Valley.