“Everybody knows about that,” he told The Republic. “The IDs that they showed, I don’t know exactly how (they know) the good ones, or how (they know) the fake ones. But they know.”
The downtown Tempe location of Zipps Sports Grill was closed on Jan. 27, a day after federal immigration authorities raided the restaurant chain.
Ex-Zipps manager details hiring process
Gonzalez-Rosales, during his interview with The Republic, said he conducted initial phone interviews in Spanish for applicants to jobs at Zipps. But he did not officially hire anyone, he said.
That job was left to managers at the Zipps locations, he said. Gonzalez-Rosales would send applicants to those restaurants, choosing the one closest to where they lived.
He told the prospective hires to bring the documents they would need to show managers at the location, who would run the name and number through E-Verify.
Gonzalez-Rosales would sometimes help new hires meet with managers, translating for them and helping fill out documents.
“But I never do, like, hirings or E-Verifies. I never do anything like that,” he said.
To access E-Verify, a user must clear a separate federal verification process.
“I never (had access), because, obviously, I don’t have papers,” he said.
What he told prosecutors
What Gonzalez-Rosales told investigators was summarized in the memo that prosecutors filed requesting a lighter sentence for him because of his extensive cooperation with investigators.
Gonzalez-Rosales said “that many of the managers and operations know the company hired aliens but they protected themselves with the paperwork,” the motion states.
Gonzalez-Rosales told investigators that if the I-9 was flagged for not passing E-Verify or if the identity was already “being worked” at Zipps, the company would simply “fire” the old identity and rehire the same individual under a new identity, according to the motion.
