According to local law enforcement, U.S. federal immigration officials conducted an enforcement action at a construction site in a rural area of Louisiana, which is the location for Meta's largest data center project, resulting in the arrest of two individuals.
The local Sheriff's Office announced on the Facebook platform on Wednesday that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrested two individuals in Louisiana's Richland Parish while they were driving dump trucks to the construction site of this Meta data center.
An eyewitness, who requested anonymity due to discussing the enforcement action, stated that several unmarked vehicles entered the perimeter of the construction site in Holly Ridge, Richland Parish, early on Wednesday.
A person familiar with the matter revealed that this action by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) was taken in response to a request from local law enforcement regarding issues of illegal laborers. This person also requested anonymity to speak freely about the sensitive matter.
The Richland Parish Sheriff's Office confirmed to Bloomberg News that ICE agents were conducting identity checks on workers heading to the construction site. The office assisted in stopping the relevant dump trucks and stated that the two individuals arrested were from Guatemala and Honduras, respectively.
The Sheriff's Office also pointed out that ICE agents "at no point" entered the actual confines of Meta's construction site.
Meta declined to comment on the matter. Meta's three primary contractors—Turner Construction, DPR Construction, and Mortenson Construction—did not respond to requests for comment. A spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security said in a statement: "ICE did not take action targeting the Meta data center in Louisiana; agents were executing a targeted arrest operation focused solely on specific individuals."
Over the past year, the Trump administration has initiated a large-scale deportation operation, aiming to implement the largest immigration enforcement program in U.S. history. This operation has targeted construction sites and manufacturing plants, including a high-profile raid in September at a Hyundai Motor Company electric vehicle battery factory in Georgia.
In this widespread enforcement operation, federal agents have been deployed in large numbers to multiple cities, including Los Angeles, Chicago, Washington D.C., New Orleans, and, more recently, Minneapolis. Earlier this month, a federal agent shot and killed a U.S. citizen during a law enforcement confrontation in Minneapolis.
These raids have raised concerns among workers involved in building the data centers that support the rapidly developing AI race. U.S. tech companies, including Meta, have pledged to invest hundreds of billions of dollars over the coming years in AI infrastructure. This plan has spurred a large number of new construction projects, spanning a vast area from the swamplands of Louisiana to the plains of Texas.
Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry is a public supporter of the Trump administration's immigration policies. In September, Landry announced a partnership with Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem aimed at expanding the state's ICE detention capacity. In December, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security launched an enforcement operation in New Orleans and other parts of Louisiana called "Operation Catahoula Crackdown," specifically targeting illegal immigration, and stated that the operation led to hundreds of arrests.
A spokesperson for Governor Landry did not respond to a request for comment.
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