A man was caught on video apparently threatening to call U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on people at Fresh Kitchen in New York City because they were speaking Spanish instead of English.
The New York Daily News reported that a regular customer was speaking Spanish with a Hispanic employee and that’s what set the man off. The manager said the man stormed off.
“They were speaking Spanish because they are friends. He got mad, waiting in line for his food. He stormed out,” the eatery manager said. “He’s a customer, so I had to stay professional and ask him to leave. That’s what I did.”
The man, who has since been identified by PIX11 as NYC attorney Aaron M. Schlossberg, can be heard saying things like “My guess is they’re not documented,” “I pay for their welfare,” “the least they can do is speak English” and “I’m calling ICE.”
The video, uploaded to Facebook by Edward Suazo, has been viewed more than 1.8 million times since being posted on Tuesday, May 15.
Along with the video, Suazo wrote a lengthy account of what happened at the establishment. He said his wife, her friend, and employees witnessed the rant and were victimized by it.
“So my wife and her best friend Just experience what America is becoming !” he began. “They where on there lunch time and ordering there food and just because they where speaking in Spanish to the waiter this asshole jumps in and started to call the waiter and my wife and her best friend all types of names and threatened to call I.C.E on them and the employees !!!!”
“I wish I was there because clearly this peace (sic) of shit need someone to punch him in his mouth !!” he continued. “What a big man talking down to couple of women and a helpless employee. I wish someone tells me I can’t speak in my native language ! First of all they wasn’t talking to you !! Asshole !”
“[W]hat you need to do is stop trying to control us ! Slavery stopped a long time ago !!” he concluded.
The legal profile for Aaron M. Schlossberg says he is “fluent in Spanish, conversational in French and has basic knowledge of Mandarin Chinese and Hebrew.”
The profile also says he attended The Johns Hopkins University and George Washington University Law School. Several former classmates from both institutions apparently contacted Shaun King about him and said they weren’t surprised.
Editor’s note: this story was updated after publication with information about the identity of the man shown in the video.
[Image via Facebook screengrab]