People threatened to report the staff of a Houston Mexican restaurant to ICE after it announced masks were still required.
Last week, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott revoked the statewide mask mandate and said businesses could resume operations at 100 percent capacity. As a result, many restaurant owners have been left with a complicated decision on whether to accept these policy shifts, The Washington Post reported. At Picos, a Mexican restaurant in Houston, people threatened to report the staff to Immigration and Customs Enforcement after the establishment announced it would continue to require masks. Picos co-owner Monica Richards said that after they made the announcement, multiple people sent hateful messages on social media and called the restaurant to complain. “People don’t understand unless you’re in our business what it felt like, how hard it was to go through everything we went through during Covid,” she said. Cantina Barba, another Mexican restaurant in Houston, has received similar threats. But many others have supported Richards’ decision—since the threats were made public, she said there has been an outpouring of support from the community.
