Waiter Fired After Asking Latina Diners For Proof Of Residency

“There was no indication that he was trying to make a joke."
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A waiter from California was fired after asking a group of Latinas for proof of residency.

On March 11, Brenda Carrillo, 23, and a friend had just been seated at Saint Marc Pub-Cafe in Huntington Beach when the waiter asked, “Can I see your proof of residency?” the Los Angeles Times reported.

The women were stunned. They repeated the question back to the waiter, who responded: “I need to make sure you’re from here before I serve you.”

A few minutes later, the women were joined by Carrillo’s sister, Diana, 24, and another friend, whom the waiter asked the same question.

“I looked at my friend and sister and I said, ‘Did he really just ask us this?’ They said, ‘Yeah, he asked us the same thing,’” Diana told KABC, an ABC news affiliate in Los Angeles.

The women complained to the manager, who offered to seat them in a new section with another server, but the women decided to leave the restaurant instead.

In the post, she calls the waiter’s behavior “unacceptable.”

“How many others has he said this too?” Diana wrote in the post, which has received over 2,000 likes and 1,400 shares. “I hope this employee is reprimanded for his actions.”

The waiter, who has since been fired, told local news channel KTLA in the video above that he meant the question as a joke.

“But he didn’t have a smile,” Diana told the LA Times. “There was no indication that he was trying to make a joke or even possibly flirt with us.”

A spokesperson for the restaurant told The Huffington Post that its former employee’s actions are in no way “representative of the Saint Marc brand nor are they reflective of the opinions of anyone else on our team.”

“We have always celebrated being part of the diverse Huntington Beach community, which means valuing all guests and treating every individual with respect,” the restaurant said in a statement.

Saint Marc Pub-Cafe said it plans to donate 10 percent of this weekend’s sales to Orange County Immigrant Youth United, an organization that advocates for the rights of undocumented immigrants.

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