Active FBI presence at Delia’s Tamales

PHARR, Texas ( ValleyCentral ) — There is an active law enforcement presence at Delia’s Tamales, according to federal authorities.

The FBI is performing a court authorized law enforcement activity on Delia’s Tamales, FBI spokesperson Trista Moxley told ValleyCentral.

One employee of Delia’s confirmed to ValleyCentral all their locations are closed.

“All the Delia’s locations are like this. No one can enter or leave the area,” Delia’s Tamales employee Elena Pena told ValleyCentral.

Ricardo Gonzalez, the attorney for Delia’s Tamales, says they were not notified by the FBI on the activity.

Delia’s Tamales has a total of seven locations in the upper Rio Grande Valley and San Antonio.

No additional information is being released at this time. ValleyCentral has a crew on the scene.

Background

In October, more than two dozen Delia’s Tamales employees joined a lawsuit accusing the chain of implementing a fraud scheme to acquire fake social security numbers for its employees.

The lawsuit cites 32 plaintiffs who worked for Delia’s Tamales from November 2000 through May 2023. They allege that Delgar Foods, also known as Delia’s Tamales, created a scheme that helped them get fake social security numbers so they could work there.

“[Delia’s Tamales] would then deduct plaintiffs social security deductions, knowing that their social security cards were fake,” the document states.

When Society Security would try to match the numbers to the employees, they would not match and by law would be sent back to Delia’s Tamales, the lawsuit alleged.

The plaintiff’s state that Delia’s Tamales would let go of employees the closer they were to retiring, with this scheme in place.

The lawsuit also alleged that the Human Resources Clerk at Delia’s would threaten to call U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement on employees if they complained about being let go.

In November, more employees joined the lawsuit alleging that Delia’s forced them to work long shifts without overtime and paid some employees less than minimum wage. These former employees also stated Delia’s threatened to call ICE on them.

On May 17, four of the plaintiffs were named in a filed noticed of dismissal for the lawsuit. The notice states that all claims that were asserted by the four plaintiffs should be dismissed with “prejudice.”

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