A construction worker hurt in last month's collapse of the Hard Rock Hotel construction site in New Orleans has been deported to his native Honduras.
Delmer Joel Ramirez Palma, a Honduran national who worked as a metal worker in New Orleans for the past 18 years, was deported by US Customs and Immigration Enforcement on Friday.
According to the report, Ramirez was arrested by Border Patrol officers while fishing in Bayou Sauvage two days after escaping the Hard Rock Hotel work site collapse on Oct. 12. He was taken to Honduras on a deportation flight Friday morning,
Activists theorize Ramirez's arrest could be retaliation for speaking out about the conditions leading to the collapse and bringing a lawsuit for injury compensation against developers and firms involved in the project.
ICE officials strongly denied the allegation, saying it was not ICE officers who arrested Ramirez and that he already faced a deportation order.
In 2016, Ramirez was ordered deported by a federal immigration judge but had been in regular contact with ICE prior to his arrest about deferring the deportation.
