Customers of a Mexican restaurant in Texas have threatened to call Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) about employees for refusing to work without a mask, according to the establishment’s owner.
“This has been happening through COVID,” Steven O’Sullivan, owner of Cantina Barba in Houston, told The Washington Post.
“We received threats to call ICE,” said O’Sullivan. “I had a guy who stood there and scolded one of my bartenders and said to her, ‘You are an absolute idiot, you don’t know what it is’ are doing. If you think these masks are going to save your life, you are stupid , blah, blah, blah. Nobody wants to deal with these things. ”
Texas Governor Greg Abbott (R) announced last week that he would terminate the state’s mask mandate and allow companies to operate at 100 percent capacity.
“We are still strongly advocating that every Texan follow best practices,” said Abbot. “Where we are today is completely different from where we were last year, when Texans and Americans didn’t know how to deal with it. For a whole year, Texans learned the best practice, which is to wear a mask, and we still strongly recommend that people wear a mask. ”
The Post chronicled a number of companies in Texas, whose owners say they will require everyone in their establishments to wear face covers outside the safety of their employees and customers.
Monica Richards, a co-owner of the Mexican restaurant Picos, said she and her team had received harassment messages on social media and the store over the phone.
“It was awful,” Richards told the Post. “People don’t understand, unless you’re in our business, how it was, how hard it was to go through everything we went through during COVID. For people to be negative with us for trying to stay safe, so that it doesn’t continue to happen, it just doesn’t make sense to us. “
Federal health officials criticized Abbott’s decision about masks and similar moves by governors in states like Mississippi.
“I understand the need to want to get back to normal, but you’ll only get in the way if you completely ignore public health guidelines – especially when we’re dealing with anywhere [55,000] to 70,000 infections per day in the United States, ” Anthony Fauci
Anthony FauciSunday shows the preview: Manchin makes the round after key role in the debate on coronavirus relief Night defense: White House open to reform of the powers of war | Army base may house migrant children | Fauci reprimands the military for the overnight vaccine in the health care system: a CDC study links masks to fewer deaths from COVID-19 | Debate on bailout stops in Senate | Biden faces criticism of pressure to vaccinate teachers MORE said this week.