‘Six quit by lunch.’ After immigration raid, Coast company has trouble finding new workers
Officials at Gulf Coast Prestress Partners used several third-party staffing agencies to hire employees, though the company is now looking into new measures to better ensure all of the workers sent to them for jobs are in the United States legally, the company’s attorney said.
The move to ensure proper compliance comes in the aftermath of a raid at the concrete contracting business in Pass Christian that resulted in the arrest of 16 immigrants.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Border Patrol agents and officers with the Drug Enforcement Administration arrested the undocumented immigrants from Mexico, Guatemala, and Honduras during an inspection of the business this week.
The company’s attorney, Damian Holcomb, said it’s been hard to find new employees to replace the undocumented workers since the enforcement action.
“Yesterday, we had eight employees sent to us, and six quit by lunch,” Holcomb said Thursday. “It’s not surprising. It’s tough work. We are starting to go through other temp agencies to find people to work.”
Gulf Coast Prestress had not identified the third-party vendors, but Holcomb said he is still in the process of gathering all that information.
The arrests are part of a nationwide effort by the Trump administration to crack down on immigration and deport millions of undocumented people. The DEA and other federal law enforcement agencies have been working with ICE since last month, when the Trump administration gave the agencies authority to investigate and stop undocumented immigrants.
Steven Hofer, the special agent in charge of the DEA’s New Orleans division, said the agency has started helping ICE at least weekly across its region, which includes Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana and Mississippi.
Inspections, including the one Monday in Pass Christian, are based on where law enforcement can make the greatest impact and are not targeted toward specific industries, he added.
“This is all based on intelligence and information gathered beforehand,” Hofer said.
In the aftermath of the arrests this week, the Sun Herald reached out to attorneys who have worked with people arrested for immigration violations.
So far, none of those arrested have been identified by name.
Attorney John Weber, a former longtime federal public defender now in private practice, has worked over the years with many of the immigrants prosecuted for crimes.
Typically, he said, authorities first do an extensive background check to determine if any of those arrested have a prior criminal history, have been previously deported, or have no prior enforcement action against them.
Immigrants who have been deported before are usually removed from the country again within a few weeks, said Logan Luquette, an immigration attorney whose firm works in Gulfport, Jackson and New Orleans. People with outstanding removal orders can be immediately deported, too.
Those without any prior enforcement action or felony conviction will end up in immigration court, the closest of which are in Louisiana in New Orleans, Oakdale, and Jena. Those immigrants can apply for asylum or ask to stay in the country if they meet certain requirements, including living in the United States for 10 years or more.
Migrants brought to Louisiana detention centers are often held without bond, according to Luquette, and must decide between voluntarily leaving the country or fighting in court to stay. Those who apply for asylum or other recourse can wait several months for cases to move through the court system, and longer if the person appeals a ruling.
Hofer said federal authorities are mostly targeting individuals with criminal pasts. Business inspections are less frequent but the DEA has assisted with several in recent weeks, he added.
Luquette said he would not be surprised to see more mass arrests in the future.
“It seems like it’s becoming more common,” he said.
