Through a school bus window covered by a metal grate, Juan Carlos Hernandez said he was hot.
Hernandez, 43, and dozens of men and women were detained at their workplace, a construction site near Florida State University campus, in what may be the state’s largest single day immigration operation on May 29.
Some were handcuffed, others were zip-tied, and then they were led into the back of white school buses with no air conditioning on a day where the feels-like temperature was 86 degrees.
There was water, but there were no cups, Hernandez said.
“I’m sad,” he said. “It’s not the time or the moment for us to leave.”
Many of the construction workers were in bright yellow shirts and jeans – work clothes. Some didn’t have any money on them, Hernandez said, others were worried about their family members who they would be leaving behind.
They didn’t know where they were going.
A man named Geronimo who was sitting next to Hernandez craned his neck to speak out of the window to say “Al mal tiempo, dale buena cara,” which means “If there is bad weather, put on a good face.”
“We’re the ones who help the country succeed, but if (President Trump) doesn’t see this, and he treats us like criminals, we won’t help him. Whatever, we’ll put our efforts into our own country,” said Geronimo, who told the USA TODAY Network-Florida he was from Mexico.
Law enforcement officers and federal agents, some wearing masks and camouflage uniforms, conducted multiple anti-illegal immigration raids that morning in Florida’s capital city, including a seven-story mixed-use development near campus called Perla at the Enclave. Videos of laborers getting tackled to the ground by agents at 9 a.m. spread quickly, and by noon, many of Tallahassee’s construction sites were silent.
In a social media post later that afternoon, Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Tampa wrote the raid was a collaboration between ICE, the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration Miami Division, the FBI office out of Jacksonville, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives office out of Tampa, U.S. Marshals Service and the criminal investigations division of the Internal Revenue Service.
All participated in “the arrest of more than 100 illegal aliens (some of which were previously deported and others with criminal backgrounds) at a major construction site in Tallahassee, Florida, during a targeted enforcement operation today! The illegal aliens are from Mexico, Guatemala, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Colombia & Honduras, to name a few,” the post reads.
Local officials said only four arrests were processed at the Leon County Detention Center. The rest who were detained were expected to be bused to immigration detention centers in Walton and Baker counties.
In another social media post, the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles hailed what it called a “massive operation.”
“Florida leads the way,” the agency wrote. “We will not tolerate illegal immigration.”
Gov. Ron DeSantis and the Florida Legislature have pushed the state to become the “toughest” on illegal immigration in the country this year, enacting laws and directing hundreds of millions of dollars to state and local law enforcement to expand the state’s authority to detain and house undocumented immigrants to comply with President Donald Trump’s mass deportation mandate.
In recent months, ICE has been working in conjunction with highway troopers across the state to detain undocumented immigrants, but Thursday’s raid was likely the largest operation so far.
When asked if the day’s dramatic raids were a warning to construction companies who hire undocumented immigrants, the governor’s office deflected questions to HSI. DeSantis did comment on social media, saying: “State law enforcement making a huge impact on immigration enforcement efforts. Major bust in Tallahassee!”
Sen. Joe Gruters, R-Sarasota, the sponsor of legislation passed during the special session that cracked down on illegal immigration, said ICE raids like this should be “no surprise.”
“I would expect a lot more of these enforcement activities that target illegals that are in our state,” he told a USA TODAY Network – Florida reporter in a phone interview.
Contractor says ‘they basically shut down Tallahassee’ after ICE raid
From inside the bus, Hernandez said he did not have a criminal record, and he said others on the bus had asylum cases.
A man named Pedro Arroliga, 30, held up his residency card to the white grate over the window. He said he came from Nicaragua and has been a resident for two years. He said federal agents checked him inside the gate of the construction site and said he was OK to go, but then he was taken and put on the bus.
Neither Arroliga nor Hernandez could be found in the ICE Online Detainee Locator System on Thursday evening. Neither were booked into the Leon County jail, either, according to Leon County court records.
According to a spokesperson for the Leon County jail, FHP brought in four people to be booked with a hold for ICE.
In a press release, ICE detailed two of the arrests: “One was taken into state custody for resisting arrest and is being charged with four counts of assault on law enforcement officers. Another attempted to pull a weapon on officers.”
“These types of enforcement actions aim to eliminate illegal employment, holding employers accountable and protecting employment opportunities for America’s lawful workforce,” ICE HSI Tallahassee Assistant Special Agent in Charge Nicholas Ingegno said in the press release. “HSI Tallahassee, working alongside our state, local, and federal partners, will continue protecting public safety by enforcing the immigration laws of our nation.”
Around noon it started to rain, and Ray D’Amico, general superintendent for the plumbing contractor at the construction site, watched his employees, who were zip-tied and waiting to be processed by federal agents.
“This is infuriating. This is absolutely ridiculous,” D’Amico said.
Once word got out about the raid, he said, other construction sites in town stopped for the day and workers went home.
“They basically shut down Tallahassee,” he said. Later, he made eye contact with one of his zip-tied workers, who smiled at him.
With much of the construction site’s workforce gone, supervisors are shaking their heads, wondering how these projects will get finished.
Many people stopped showing up for work in fear they’d be picked up by immigration agents when DeSantis first announced the state’s illegal immigration crackdown in January. Now, workers are saying turnout will be even lower.
“I don’t blame people,” said Michael Martinez, a laborer who witnessed agents attempt to detain people at his work site a few blocks away earlier in the day.
‘Last photo of the United States’ taken on an ICE bus
Construction worker Leonardo Garcia was let go, but his father wasn’t. He was handcuffed and led onto the same bus as Hernandez and Arroliga. Garcia, who is a citizen and is from Tallahassee, said his father has documentation but was still detained by agents.
“None of them wanted to cooperate with me, none of them wanted to talk to me,” Garcia said. Finally, he said two “nice” officers accompanied Garcia to the second floor of a building to get his father’s paperwork.
At first, they had Garcia’s father handcuffed to another person. Many of the construction workers waiting in line to be processed on Thursday morning were zip-tied to others by the wrist.
Once processed, an agent led the detainee to the back of the bus, which started to get crowded when it hit 32 passengers, who said they were from Nicaragua, Mexico, Venezuela and Honduras.
“We don’t have any more room!” one person yelled.
“It’s hot!” another yelled.
Once the bus left, Hernandez sent a USA TODAY Network-Florida reporter a video he recorded on his phone. As the bus moves through Tallahassee, Hernandez can be heard saying “last photo of the United States!”
When he pans his phone camera around the bus, men throw up peace signs and wave. One says, “Hello to Nicaragua.”
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: ‘Last photo of the United States’: What those detained in Tallahassee ICE raid had to say
Reporting by Ana Goñi-Lessan, USA TODAY NETWORK – Florida / Tallahassee Democrat
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
