This archive report was first published on 30 November 2019.
A Whistle-Blower, a Collapsed Hotel, a Deportation ¶
On October 12, 2019, a Hard Rock Hotel in New Orleans was on the verge of collapse, with temporary beams bent under the weight of the floors above. A worker posted a video of the building, saying sarcastically in Spanish, 'It’s the best engineering.'
Just a few days later, parts of the upper floors crumbled, killing three workers and injuring more than 20 people, including Delmer Joel Ramírez Palma, a metal worker who had repeatedly reported safety issues to supervisors.
However, after speaking to the media about the shoddy work conditions and filing a lawsuit with other workers seeking damages, Ramírez Palma was deported to Honduras on November 22, 2019. This is not an isolated incident; Immigration and Customs Enforcement (I.C.E.) has been used as a tool to insulate private development projects from labor and safety regulations.
Since Hurricane Katrina in 2005, many Latinx migrants have filled the void left by the city's black population, who were forced out of the city due to failed policies like the Road Home program. These migrants made up nearly half of the rebuilding workforce and performed risky tasks in toxic conditions.
However, to supposedly boost reconstruction efforts, the administration of George W. Bush temporarily suspended federal statutes that would have protected workers' health and wages. Deportation rates in Louisiana rose significantly and continued under the Obama administration, partly because I.C.E. has retaliated against people who have exposed civil rights abuses.
One such incident occurred in August 2011, when Latinx employees of Louisiana Home Elevations were detained in a violent raid by I.C.E. and local law enforcement after trying to resolve a payment dispute with their contractor. The company was eventually convicted of money laundering, but the migrant workers faced the harshest punishment, with some being deported and none receiving the $10,000-plus they were collectively owed.
Despite an agreement between the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Labor in the Obama administration that each agency must enforce labor law regardless of a worker's immigration status, the Trump administration has defied these protections. An executive order in 2017 directed agencies to 'make use of all available systems and resources' to enforce immigration policy and ordered I.C.E. to hire 10,000 officers and agents.
Meanwhile, federal worker protection agencies, like the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, remained understaffed, even though worker deaths are at a 10-year high. This was the lead-up to the collapse of the Hard Rock Hotel.
As an exposé on the incident shows, collusion between developers and federal agencies exacerbated this disaster. The construction company in charge of the project had a history of taking on structurally unsound construction projects and faced no major repercussions after a New Orleans-area home it was working on collapsed in 2013.
Two days after the building fell, Ramírez Palma was fishing in a suburb of New Orleans when the Fish and Wildlife Service stopped him for not having a license and turned him over to the Border Patrol. His lawyer claims that his arrest was connected to the media interview and the lawsuit seeking damages, but I.C.E. denies this.
It's clear that prioritizing immigration enforcement over workplace safety enables risk and corruption. Washington must protect all workers regardless of immigration status, and developers should be regulated to ensure worker safety.
