DENVER -- Federal agents raided big restaurant chains like the Hard Rock Cafe, ESPN Zone, and Dave and Buster's in a national sweep that occurred late Wednesday night and early Thursday morning.

The agents fanned out in 63 locations nationwide, including several places in Colorado, grabbing hundreds of illegal aliens working as cleaning people. Investigators said the raids were carried out in 17 states and Washington, D.C.

ICE officials said that approximately 220 people were arrested and taken into custody as they started their shifts or ended their shifts at the restaurants where they were working.

7NEWS has learned that 12 people in Colorado were taken in the raid. Ten of them were from Mexico, one from El Salvador, and one from Guatemala. They were working at the Dave and Buster's on Colorado Boulevard and in Westminster, and the ESPN Zone in Denver.

At least five of the workers have agreed to be deported to Mexico, 7NEWS reported.

Reaction to the raid differed widely. Colorado Rep. Tom Tancredo, a staunch opponent of illegal immigration, applauded the action.

"If you really want to get a handle on the illegal immigration problem in this country, this is the kind of thing you're going to have to do. You are going to have to go after the people who are hiring them," Tancredo said.

"We're really sad because this kind of situation shouldn't be happening," Harold Lasso of the Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition said. "These individuals were working, trying to provide for their families and serving the economy in this country."

The coalition held a candlelight vigil in Denver Thursday evening.

"The light of hope is always with us," said Dora Medina who attended the vigil. Around 40 people called for comprehensive immigration reform.

"Some of my family members don't have papers and I want them to stay here," said Celene Padilla, age 15. "I don't want them to go."

Those who were taken away are employed by a Nevada-based company called RCI, which acts as a cleaning contractor for various businesses.

Most of RCI's employees are Mexican, Honduran and Guatemalan nationals.

RCI employs approximately 340 people so about 60 percent of their workforce were impacted by the sweep, ICE officials said.

RCI co-owners Richard M. Rosenbaum, 60, of Longwood, Fla.; and Edward Scott Cunningham, 43, of West Palm Beach, Fla.; and firm controller Christina A. Flocken, 59, also of Longwood, face criminal fraud, immigration and tax charges in a 23-count indictment unsealed Thursday in U.S. District Court in Grand Rapids.

"This is not a case of bad bookkeeping or skirting the rules," said Brian M. Moskowitz, special agent in charge of the Detroit office of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. "It involved flagrant criminal behavior."

Government officials said that company officials hired and recruited illegal immigrants to do the work and paid them in cash.

According to the indictment, RCI failed to pay $18.6 million in employment taxes to the Internal Revenue Service. The indictment alleges that company officials used 63 percent of the savings to pay for the company's operating expenses and used the other 37 percent to enrich themselves, including buying luxury homes, boats and racehorses and to pay for their kids' college education.

The workers were recruited through word-of-mouth, at Hispanic festivals, and through advertising in Spanish-language newspapers. Very few of the workers ever filled out employment applications or had to submit proof that they were legally in the United States, the indictment alleges.

The 20-month investigation started in 2005, with concerns about cleaning crews in a Michigan resort.

RCI's clients include House of Blues, Planet Hollywood, China Grill and Yardhouse as well as Hard Rock Cafe, ESPN Zone and Dave and Buster's.

Richard Rosenbaum, RCI's founder and president, was arrested and faces charges of conspiracy to defraud the government and harboring illegal immigrants. RCI's employees are also accused of obtaining fake green cards for workers.