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El Paso agreed in May 2012 to fund annual police training on its anti-discrimination ordinance after Carlos Diaz de Leon and four other men sued over a 2009 Chico's Tacos confrontation that began when two men kissed inside the restaurant.

The confrontation happened on the night of June 28, 2009, at a Chico's Tacos location on Montwood Avenue, where Diaz de Leon and four friends had stopped to eat. Two of the men kissed at the counter and again after they sat down to eat, according to the lawsuit later filed against the city.

A security guard working for the restaurant's private security contractor told the group, in Spanish, that he would not allow "****** things" inside the restaurant, according to court filings cited by news outlets that covered the case. The guard called El Paso police to have the group removed. Diaz de Leon said he also called 911 to report that the guard was harassing them, and the recorded calls, made in Spanish, later became part of the public record.

Responding El Paso police officers told the men they could be arrested for "homosexual conduct," citing a Texas statute the U.S. Supreme Court had already struck down as unconstitutional six years earlier. The police department later acknowledged that officers, including a then-rookie patrolman identified in news accounts as Israel Rodriguez-Aceves, mishandled the call.

The incident drew protests outside the restaurant that summer and was condemned by members of the El Paso City Council. Diaz de Leon and four other men filed a federal lawsuit against the city, Chico's Tacos and the security company in 2010, arguing that police and the guard had violated a local ordinance barring discrimination based on sexual orientation.

Diaz de Leon and his attorneys announced the settlement with the city at El Paso City Hall. Under the agreement, the police department committed to funding annual officer training on the ordinance, and the security company agreed to sensitivity training for its employees. Rodriguez-Aceves had already sent Diaz de Leon a written apology months earlier, saying he regretted how the situation was handled and would enforce the ordinance going forward. No monetary damages were awarded.