Tallahassee ICE raid sparks questions, but still no answers from feds
A week after federal immigration agents detained more than 100 people at the construction site of a student housing complex in Tallahassee, authorities are declining to discuss why they targeted the site.
The warrant for the raid, filed in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida and signed by U.S. Magistrate Judge Martin A. Fitzpatrick, is still sealed.
Many questions remain unanswered, among them:
Who was the warrant for?
What was the probable cause for the warrant?
How many people were detained?
Where were they taken?
There also has been little information given by the companies who employed the detained workers taken from their job site on May 29.
While some workers have already been removed to their countries of origin, there are still friends and family members of those who were handcuffed or zip-tied and led onto buses who say they are still awaiting phone calls from their loved ones.
One laborer at the construction site said people were afraid to come back to work this week, and those who did in the days after the raid all had work permits or documentation.
Questions sent to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement by the USA TODAY Network about where the detainees have been sent and other details about the raid have gone unanswered.
The site of the raid is a construction site for Perla at the Enclave, a student housing complex that will contain 218 units, according to Zimmer Development Co. of North Carolina.
The company touts more than 260 projects across more than 150 cities in the United States with more than $4 billion in developed assets, according to its website.
As previously reported, the $100 million Perla project in Florida's capital is located a short walk from Doak Campbell Stadium, the football stadium for the Florida State University Seminoles, and is the sixth project for Zimmer in Tallahassee.
Questions emailed to Zimmer Development executives have not been answered, and when a reporter called and identified herself on the phone, the company's in-house counsel hung up.
A spokesperson for Hedrick Brothers Construction, another company involved in the Perla project, said in an email that a representative of U.S. Homeland Security Investigations told the company neither it nor the project site were the focus of the investigation.
The company also had no prior knowledge of the raid and has been told little about it: "We understand the operation was part of a broader criminal investigation unrelated to our company or the project, but that is all of the information we have been provided."
None of Hedrick Brothers' employees were detained, and the company requires all independent subcontractors to use E-Verify, a web-based system that allows companies to confirm the eligibility of employees to work in the U.S. But the spokesperson did say people employed by one of its subcontractors were detained during the raid.
"We remain committed to ethical business practices, full legal compliance, and transparency as this investigation unfolds," the spokesperson said.
At the same time of the raid at the construction site, federal and local law enforcement descended on a gated home a few miles away on the north side of Tallahassee. The home has the same address as a business listed as Nino's Carpentry Shop.
A spokesperson for the Leon County Sheriff's Office called it an an 'active and fluid' investigation and said the operation was not an immigration enforcement issue, but declined to comment if the raid was linked to people associated with the raid at the construction site.
Ana Goñi-Lessan, state watchdog reporter for the USA TODAY Network – Florida, can be reached at agonilessan@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Families still await answers after Tallahassee immigration raid
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Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
