Kamal Ghorui
A popular Los Angeles restaurateur is facing deportation after immigration agents detained him in an arrest. His family said he was arrested after a former employee ratted him out to authorities about a gun kept at his restaurant.Chef Carlos Lool, the owner of La Granja Rotisserie and Fuego Rotisserie in South Los Angeles, was taken into custody by ICE agents last week while collecting supplies for a catering event.Video showed masked federal agents surrounding Lool and pulling him from a vehicle in a roadside arrest. His business partner and girlfriend, Jenna Lawrence, said the encounter quickly turned chaotic.“They yanked him out of the car. They had him on the floor. They yanked me back and pulled out their guns and then they took him,” she told ABC7.Lawrence described the arrest as “sad and humiliating”, adding: “This is heartbreaking. Every single person who’s had a family member or someone that they love taken from them by ICE – it is so sad and humiliating.”According to Lawrence, the investigation began after a former employee contacted authorities and claimed there was a firearm inside the restaurant. The alleged weapon reportedly violated Lool’s parole conditions, who has a criminal record.Lawrence defended the decision to keep the gun, saying the restaurants had repeatedly faced crime in the neighbourhood, and it was for self-defence.“We’re in a tough neighborhood. We have been robbed. We constantly have people breaking windows and jumping over the fence,” she said.Lool is originally from Guatemala and has a criminal record dating back nearly three decades in Connecticut. In 1997, he was convicted of third-degree assault, a Class A misdemeanour. A year later, he was convicted of second-degree assault, a felony. Records also show several DUI and failure-to-appear offences.It remains unclear whether Lool was legally residing in US at the time of his arrest.For many residents in Hyde Park, Lool was a mentor to young chefs in South Los Angeles. His restaurants had built a loyal following in the community.Lawrence said his detention has left business and family in crisis as he could soon be deported.“To think that he’s not gonna be here caring for everything that he dreamed about building in this country is just devastating,” she said.She added that Lool’s children live in US and claimed he was taken away without access to basic belongings or work tools.“He’s been in this country. His kids are here. It’s just a lot and it’s very overwhelming… and he doesn’t have his clothes, no cell phone, no computer – and we own businesses. We’re just getting deeper and deeper in a hole because he’s being deported.”Lool remains in ICE custody while deportation proceedings move forward.
