Delia’s Tamales: Buy a dozen this Christmas
Christmas season, especially Christmas Eve, is probably the biggest tamale time of the year for the Valley institution known as Delia’s Tamales, with locations in the RGV and San Antonio.
Five months ago, July, after the FBI raided Delia’s, a San Antonio TV news outlet did a story on the tamale chain, the fed raid, and the lawsuit filed against it, which got me thinking: this can’t be good for business because the story only included quotes from one of the plaintiffs’ attorneys, which included this inflammatory comment:
“They’re preying on people who, again, don’t have legal status, and it’s disgusting.”
How much business that story cost the company, who knows, because for the casual reader, it looks like Delia’s is guilty of screwing the “little guy,” or “little woman.”
Something that will offend most people with a heart.
However, the suit against the company still makes little sense.
This summer (August), the group of 29 plaintiffs tried to attach Delia’s founder, Delia Garza, to the lawsuit, since personally, she probably has the most to lose, given the fact that she is now reportedly in semi-retirement, but that motion was denied by U.S. Magistrate Judge Peter Bray.
Two months ago, Delia’s attorneys filed a motion in federal court, asking for a summary judgment, which is a way of cutting quickly to the chase — ask the judge to decide the merits of the case, avoid a costly trial, and put this controversy to rest.
According to Delia’s legal team, the plaintiffs cannot “meet their burden of establishing that they performed work for which they were not properly compensated.”
In their motion seeking summary judgment, the defense attorneys made use of former employees’ sworn depositions to counter their claims.
Not long after, the plaintiffs’ attorneys took 150 pages and filled them with reasons why the case should go to trial:
“All 27 Plaintiffs were former employees of Delia’s, who were terminated because of their legal status. All were undocumented and Delia’s was fully aware of their immigration status, and their immigration status was the reason that they worked in excess of 40 hours work week and were not paid as provided under (federal law).”
Christmas Tamales
Since Christmas is next week, I thought The Advance would reprint a column published in October 2023, which first brought this story to light.
You be the judge as to whether the allegations made against Delia’s makes any sense. If not, then please buy some of her great tamales this Christmas season, given the fact the company is still innocent until proven guilty.
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From a column published from October 2023:
Say it ain’t so. An Upper-Valley tradition for the past 25-plus years, Delia’s Tamales, cheated both the federal government and 26 of its employees out of Social Security money, while helping them create fake Social Security cards?
The lead attorney representing all 26 plaintiffs suing Delia’s, now operating under the name, Delgar Foods, LLC D/B/A Delia’s Tamales, is the former Edinburg mayor and city attorney, Richard ReneAlamia.
The lawsuit, now sitting in federal court, waiting for a December 2023 pre-trial hearing, which places 26 plaintiffs on the books against Delia’s Tamales.
The employees, according to the suit, worked for Delia’s from November 2000 to May 2023. During that time, Delia’s helped them get fake Social Security numbers so they could legally work for the growing tamale company.
When Social Security would try to match the numbers to the employees, based on payroll deductions, they discovered the discrepancy and “by law, (the withheld SS money) would be sent back to Delia’s Tamales.”
As the employees got closer to retirement, claims the suit, Delia’s would find some pretense to let them go, and if they protested, the company’s head honcho and its attorney would threaten them with the feds, as in, “If you tell on us, we’re going to call ICE and tell them that you are in this country illegally.”
The lawsuit also claims that Delia’s is guilty of age discrimination.
The Advance ran the claims made in this lawsuit by two CPAs, both of whom said, there is no way that Social Security would simply send the SS money back to Delia’s. Rather, they’d send a letter advising the owners that there was a problem matching the SS numbers, they appeared bogus, and please provide either a new number for the said employee or offer an explanation.
Besides, even if such a scheme were possible, this wouldn’t have gone on for 23 years without the IRS getting wind of it, since the two agencies work together — the IRS and Social Security.
There is something else about Alamia’s lawsuit, with its 26 plaintiffs named, that is hard to fathom.
On one hand, the suit claims that Delia’s took out the Social Security taxes from the workers’ paychecks but kept “all of the deductions” for itself.
Then, the same lawsuit/complaint claims that Social Security would send monies back to Delia’s because the numbers were fake.
No matter how you cut it, this should be an easy case to prove or disprove, with a paper trail a mile long. (It’s now lasted for more than a year.)
The other thing about this case is, by claiming that they took part in an illegal scheme — allowing Delia’s to give them fake Social Security cards and going along with the charade — the 26 plaintiffs themselves are basically admitting to criminal fraud at the federal level, which isn’t a place where one would presumably want to be.
Delia’s Tamales
For its part, Delia’s is a Valley success story. Approximately 30 years ago, Delia Lubin needed to provide money for her family, so she started making tamales with one of her sisters out of her home kitchen. They then went door-to-door and business-to-business selling them.
They were so good, in fact, that by 1998, her business had outgrown her home kitchen, so Delia Lubin opened her first restaurant in South McAllen.
Twenty-five years later, she has six Delia’s Tamales locations in the Valley, with a $15-million production plant under development in San Juan. She also has a tamale location in San Antonio.
To say that the woman and her family have made a success out of life, out of business, would be an understatement.
So, who are you going to believe, and do the allegations sound plausible?