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Zipps kitchen manager sentenced to prison after ICE raid, calls him 'scapegoat'

Jun 5, 2026·Location: Phoenix, AZ

Zipps kitchen manager sentenced to prison after ICE raid, calls him 'scapegoat'
Photo via phoenixnewtimes.com

Diego Armando Gonzalez-Rosales, a former kitchen manager at Zipps Sports Grill, was sentenced to five months in prison after pleading guilty to sharing another person's driver's license and Social Security card to help a friend get hired at the restaurant chain. Gonzalez-Rosales came to the U.S. in 2006 and started as a dishwasher at Zipps before working his way up to kitchen manager, a role in which he vetted and hired new kitchen staff, and he also used fake identification himself to obtain employment. He was arrested during a January raid on Zipps' 15 Valley locations stemming from a Homeland Security Investigations probe into undocumented workers, one of only four employees indicted despite 39 people being arrested that day. His attorney, Debbie Jang, said he was the only person in a management position to face charges and called him a 'pawn' and 'scapegoat' for a company she said systematically engaged in unlawful hiring practices. He faces potential deportation upon release from prison.

Timeline

Jun 1, 2026—Sentenced to five months in prison after pleading guilty to providing fraudulent identification documents
Jan 1, 2026—Arrested during Homeland Security Investigations raid on 15 Zipps Sports Grill locations in the Valley
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