Boss Threatens To Call Immigration On Ex-Worker

(Updated) A pay dispute at a downtown restaurant ended with a manager threatening to call immigration authorities — and pro-immigration activists showing up to demand respect.

On Friday morning, four members of Unidad Latina en Acción (ULA) joined the employee, Antonio Portillo, to deliver a letter to management at Tomatillo at 320 Elm St.

Portillo, who immigrated from Mexico, worked in Tomatillo’s kitchen for two years. On Feb. 11, he decided to leave the job because of the workload and pay, he said. He said he was making Connecticut’s minimum wage of $16.35 an hour. He had hoped for a raise to $18 an hour, but didn’t get the pay bump, and so left. 

In Spanish, Portillo explained to the Independent on Friday that he felt the amount of work he was doing was deserving of higher pay. He also said he was still owed $500 by his former employer.

After Portillo resigned, Tomatillo’s manager, Mike Boules, threatened to call immigration services. ​“By the way,” Boules texted Portillo in early February, ​“I will send the your [sic] paper and check to the labor/immigration department”.

Update: Tomatillo’s owner, Moe Gad, told the Independent Friday evening that he gave Portillo his final check at 5 p.m. ULA confirmed Portillo received the check. 

Gad told the Independent he has no intention of calling immigration on Portillo. He described Boules’s threat as an empty one resulting from the dispute between Boules and Portillo.

Gad also said that what the pay dispute was the result of a ​“misunderstanding.” He said he never intentionally withheld any money from Portillo, and that the check he gave him on Friday was dated Feb. 7. ​“I didn’t know about the beef between the manager and him,” he said.

Portillo’s uncle, a longtime member of ULA, suggested he call the group for support. 

“We want to start exposing these situations because we feel like under this new administration in this country, the bosses, they feel like they can do whatever and say whatever to people,” ULA President John Jairo Lugo said.

The Trump administration has amped up deportations and promoted widespread anti-immigrant rhetoric, the effects of which have been felt among New Haven’s immigrant communities.

Mike Boules was not present Friday morning and hung up after the Independent called with a request for comment.

Lugo led off conversation with Tomatillo’s manager, a man who identified himself as Boules’s father. 

“We want to deliver this letter because I think you still owe around $500 to Antonio,” Lugo said. 

“I know that,” the father replied.

“You know that?” Lugo replied. He insisted that the man keep the letter as he tried to hand it back.

“And your son, when Antonio asked for the check, he said that is going to call immigration on him,” Lugo said.

“Yeah,” the father said. He explained Antonio’s social security was ​“no good.”

“So you’re calling immigration?” Lugo asked. 

“I will call immigration,” the father said. 

“You need to know that you live in a sanctuary city in New Haven, and you cannot do that,” Lugo replied. ​“So now, we’re going to start a boycott against this place because you cannot call immigration on people. You’re an immigrant also. And he has been working for you really hard.”

“I think we will call immigration,” the father said.

“We need a check today,” Lugo said, after a short back-and-forth.

“Not today,” the father said. ​“Um, Monday.”

The ULA group left the restaurant to convene outside. The father again threatened to call the police on the group.

“We’re not going to allow this type of behavior up in here in New Haven. That might happen in Florida, in Texas, but Connecticut’s Connecticut,” Lugo said. ​“We have been working really hard for 23 years to make this city and the state a good place for the immigrant community. And now we have these people saying that kind of stuff in front of all of us.”

Lugo said he does not want Yale Properties to rent to businesses that take advantage of workers, a conversation he says ULA tried to begin with Yale years ago.

“Basically, they never have an answer for us,” Lugo said. ​“But I think this is a good time to restart the conversation with Yale Properties.”

Thomas Breen contributed to this report. This article has been corrected to reflect that Boules is a manager at Tomatillo.