INS Hits Sour Note at S.F. Opera Cafe
SAN FRANCISCO — A popular cafe known for its singing waiters has become the first Northern California business to be fined for failing to fill out paper work required by the new immigration law, Immigration and Naturalization Service officials announced Friday.
David Ilchert, INS district director for Northern California, said agents paid four visits to Max’s Opera Cafe on Van Ness Avenue in the heart of the city before slapping the restaurant with a $3,000 fine.
On the first visit, which was purely educational, INS agents instructed the restaurant’s management in filling out the I-9 employment eligibility forms that have been required for all employees hired since Nov. 6, 1986, Ilchert said. On two subsequent visits officers made after being tipped off about possible violations, restaurant management rejected offers of further education on the law and the I-9 forms, Ilchert said.
Of the 15 Max’s employees who did not have properly filled out I-9 forms, only one has been confirmed to be an unauthorized alien.
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