Diego Gonzalez-Rosales, whose job it was to oversee the operations of each kitchen in the Zipps Sports Grill chain, was at the downtown Tempe location to make sure set-up for a private party went smoothly.
Then, immigration agents busted in.
Gonzalez-Rosales was arrested Jan. 26, the day agents simultaneously raided every location of the popular sports bar and restaurant chain in the Phoenix area. Agents acted on a tip that said management knowingly hired kitchen workers who were in the country illegally and who used fraudulent documents to get through the required verification screening.
Gonzalez-Rosales spoke with law enforcement, detailing how Zipps staffed its kitchens. And how management must have known who it was hiring, and how.
Still, Gonzalez-Rosales,
37, was the only manager who has faced charges in the Zipps investigation.
A Zipps spokesperson told The Arizona Republic in early September that prosecutors informed the company the investigation was closed with no further prosecutions. The U.S. Attorney's Office has not confirmed that.
Here are five takeaways from a phone interview that The Republic conducted with Gonzalez-Rosales while he was held at the Eloy Detention Center awaiting deportation. Gonzalez-Rosales was transferred to Eloy after spending five months in federal prison after pleading guilty to a felony charge of misusing a person's identity.
What did Gonzalez-Rosales say about hiring practices at Zipps?
Undocumented immigrants used driver's licenses and Social Security numbers that belonged to legal workers to fraudulently pass E-Verify screenings, which are mandatory under Arizona law, Gonzalez-Rosales said.
Managers sometimes facilitated it by "firing" and "rehiring" the same illegal worker multiple times using different documents each time, he said.
While he had an initial conversation with prospective hires, Gonzalez-Rosales said it was management above himat each location that would actually run the person through the E-Verify system and sign the hiring documents. Agents could check the paperwork to see who signed, he said.
Gonzalez-Rosales was not able to use E-Verify because that system required users to pass a verification of their identity. And, Gonzalez-Rosales was in the country illegally himself and didn't have the documents required for access, he said.
Zipps management knew that workers were using fraudulent documents to get hired, he said.
He told authorities about the time a prospective employee failed an E-Verify screening and was told by a member of management to get another Social Security number.
He discussed with agents text messages that he said showed a manager knew a person worked under one name but went by another real name.
Investigators were able to corroborate "much" of what Gonzalez-Rosales told them, according to a sealed court document. The Republic was able to review a copy of that document.
"Everybody knows," Gonzalez-Rosales told The Republic.
How did Zipps respond to Gonzalez-Rosales' claims?
A marketing person with Zipps sent The Republic two emailed statements.
In the first, sent on Aug. 31, the spokesperson said she could not comment specifically on Gonzalez-Rosales' allegations because the case remained an open legal matter.
But, the statement from Tiffany Doby, the marketing and public relations director for Zipps, said Gonzalez-Rosales had reason to point the finger at others.
The statement said that Gonzalez-Rosales faced serious criminal charges and was facing deportation. "He therefore has an obvious personal interest in shifting responsibility for his actions to others," her statement said.
On Sept. 2, Doby sent a second statement. It said Zipps had learned that the U.S. Attorney's Office had closed its investigation into the matter and told Zipps it was not seeking any further prosecutions. The statement called the decision "appropriate."
Doby did not respond to a follow-up email asking how Zipps found out the investigation was closed.
Nor did she respond to an interview request with any members of management since the case had concluded.
Doby's statement said the record showed that Zipps took seriously its obligations to follow federal, state and local regulations. And that it strongly disputed any suggestion it knowingly hired employees not legally authorized to work in the United States.
On the day of the raids, agents found 39 employees in Zipps kitchens they accused of being in the country illegally.
Doby did not respond to a question as to whether Zipps had changed any of its hiring practices since the raid.
Why is Gonzalez-Rosales speaking out?
The Republic arranged an interview with Gonzalez-Rosales while he was housed in the Eloy Detention Center, facing deportation.
He wanted to speak to reporters to tell his story before he was deported to Mexico.
Gonzalez-Rosales said he felt he was taking the fall for the entire Zipps organization. He thought that after working for the company for 20 years, it would have done something to support him.
In his August interview with The Republic, Gonzalez-Rosales seemed resigned to his fate of returning to Mexico. Still, he held out hope that something could be done to allow him to stay.
“I got all my memories here,” he said.
Gonzalez-Rosales pleaded guilty to what charge?
Gonzalez-Rosales pleaded guilty to a single felony charge of unlawfully transferring a person's identity to someone else.
When he was arrested in January, Gonzalez-Rosales faced five federal felony charges, including one that accused him of a "pattern and practice" of knowingly employing people in the country illegally.
Two Zipps kitchen workers told agents that Gonzalez-Rosales gave them a name to use to work at Zipps. One person said he paid Gonzalez-Rosales $300 for the name, court records say. Both men said they were never given a physical document, only told what name to use, court papers say.
A woman told agents in August 2025 that she had left Zipps in February 2025, but was rehired four months later, court records say. But, she said, she didn't receive a paycheck and management told her someone else was working at Zipps using her identity. She said Gonzalez-Rosales called her and told her he would handle the matter, according to court documents.
Gonzalez-Rosales told agents upon his arrest that he would take photos of driver's licenses and Social Security cards belonging to U.S. citizens so they could be used to get hired.
He ended up pleading guilty to a single charge of doing that.
He gave an image of an Arizona driver's license and a Social Security card to a person nicknamed "Gato," Gonzalez-Rosales said.
The name and Social Security number belonged to an applicant from three years previous. The applicant passed through E-Verify, but then, he said, never took the job.
Gonzalez-Rosales did not explain why he still had those documents stored on his phone.
He told The Republic he regretted giving Gato the documents.
“It’s only one time in 20 years,” he said. “I just (made) a bad decision. At that time, I was just thinking about helping a friend to find work.”
What is the status of the Zipps Sports Grill investigation?
As of late August, the investigation was still continuing.
Jason Stevens, the special agent in charge of Homeland Security Investigations for Arizona, told The Republic on Aug. 26 that the investigation into Zipps was ongoing.
The U.S. Attorney for Arizona, Timothy Courchaine, also said the investigation into Zipps was open. “I wish I could say more, but I can’t,” he said. The men were holding a news conference about another matter.
On Sept. 2, the Zipps spokesperson said the company had been told earlier that week that the case had closed with no further prosecutions.
A spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney's Office did not respond to a request to confirm what the Zipps spokesperson said. She did say that there might be an update about the case during the week of Sept. 8.
Gonzalez-Rosales did give a sworn statement to use in any future proceeding, the spokesperson said. He also was not held as a material witness because there were no pending cases that required his testimony.
Gonzalez-Rosales told investigators he would testify in court against any Zipps executives or general managers, according to a sealed prosecution motion reviewed by The Republic.
But the government did not take him up on that offer.
“At this time Defendant’s co-conspirators have not been charged and it is not expected that the Defendant will be asked to testify in court,” the motion said.
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: 5 takeaways from exclusive interview with manager charged in Zipps raids
