29-07-2025
UPDATE: New video shows latest immigration raid in Baldwin County
UPDATE (6:30 p.m.): Almost a dozen workers at a school construction site in Baldwin County have been taken into custody by federal agents in the second immigration raid on the Gulf Coast this week.
Just before the morning break at the construction site of the new Loxley Elementary School off County Road 64, federal agents arrived, and workers scattered.
'It was crazy,' said Irv Ballonoff. 'Like literally everyone was running around and stuff.'
Ballonoff whipped out his phone and started recording as a swarm of federal agents on four-wheelers and a helicopter circled above. Eleven workers that federal agents say are in the country illegally were taken into custody.
'Bricklayers and our roofers, so now we got to find some roofers, 'cause we don't have any,' said Ballonoff.
It is the latest immigration enforcement action in Baldwin County and the second this week on the Gulf Coast. A landscaping business in Navarre was raided Tuesday.
'One of them came up to me and ask me where I was from,' said Ballonoff. 'I said Silverhill, Alabama, my whole life.'
Baldwin County School Supt. Eddie Tyler released a statement to News 5 after hearing of the raid that said:
'Baldwin County Public Schools is cooperating with federal investigators following a raid at the new Loxley Elementary School construction site. Our contracts with our construction projects require compliance with federal law. At this time, we have no indication of any wrongdoing. We remain committed to transparency and accountability in all of our operations.'
Just after ten o'clock, a parade of law enforcement vehicles left the property, including the now-familiar nondescript van transporting those arrested. It is a day at work that Irv Ballonoff won't soon forget.
'Definitely the most exciting thing that happened today for sure.'
Work resumed after the raid. The school is scheduled to be open by the Fall of 2026.
UPDATE (11:30 a.m.): Baldwin County Public Schools Superintendent Eddie Tyler issued a statement Wednesday morning following an immigration raid at the Loxley Elementary School construction site.
Tyler said the school system is cooperating with federal investigators, and he has no reason to believe there was intentional wrongdoing.
'Our contracts with our construction projects require compliance with federal law,' he said in the statement. 'At this time, we have no indication of any wrongdoing.'
Tyler said he intends to remain open about everything the school system does.
'We remain committed to transparency and accountability in all of our operations,' he said.
Officials showed up at the site on County Road 64 in Loxley at around 8:30 this morning and arrested 11 people.
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LOXLEY, Ala. (WKRG) — In yet another ICE raid, more than half a dozen people were detained Wednesday morning as they worked on the new Loxley Elementary School.
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has learned that the raid started around 8:30 a.m. at the construction site off County Road 64, when more than a dozen unmarked law enforcement vehicles arrived.
FBI Spokesman Tommy Loftis said 11 people were arrested in this latest immigration enforcement action.
Baldwin County School System officials are aware of the operation and said that most of the work being done today involved masonry, so fewer workers were on site.
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Loftis said the FBI will have more information later today.
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