Federal immigration officers focused a development website in rural Louisiana the place Meta Platforms Inc. is constructing its largest kn
Federal immigration officers focused a development website in rural Louisiana the place Meta Platforms Inc. is constructing its largest knowledge heart, resulting in the arrest of two people, in response to native regulation enforcement.
US Immigrations and Customs Enforcement arrested two people who had been driving dump vehicles headed to Meta’s development website in Richland Parish, Louisiana, the native sherrif’s workplace mentioned in a Fb post on Wednesday.
A witness, who requested to stay nameless talking concerning the enforcement actions, mentioned unmarked autos arrived on the perimeter of the development website in Holly Ridge, a city inside Richland Parish, earlier Wednesday.
ICE responded as a result of a request from native regulation enforcement about undocumented staff, an individual accustomed to the scenario mentioned. The particular person declined to be named to freely talk about a delicate scenario.
The Richland Parish Sherrif’s Workplace confirmed to Bloomberg Information that the ICE brokers had been checking the identification of staff’ en path to the development website. The 2 arrested people had been from Guatemala and Honduras, mentioned the sherrif’s workplace, which assisted with site visitors stops involving the dump vehicles.
The ICE brokers didn’t enter the Meta website “at any time,” the sherrif’s workplace mentioned.
Meta declined to remark. The Division of Homeland Safety, ICE and Meta’s three basic contractors — Turner Building Firm, DPR Building and Mortenson — didn’t reply to requests for remark.
During the last 12 months, the Trump administration has launched a mass deportation effort, aiming to hold out the most important deportation marketing campaign in US historical past. The marketing campaign has focused development websites and manufacturing vegetation, together with a high-profile raid of a Hyundai Motor Co. electric-vehicle battery plant in Georgia in September.
The operation has concerned surges of federal brokers to cities together with Los Angeles, Chicago, Washington DC, New Orleans and most lately Minneapolis, the place a federal agent shot and killed a US citizen throughout a confrontation earlier this month.
The sweeps have sparked considerations for these working to construct knowledge facilities to energy a fast-moving synthetic intelligence race. US-based tech corporations, together with Meta, have pledged to spend a whole lot of billions of {dollars} on AI infrastructure in coming years. That’s led to a flurry of latest development initiatives, from the bayous of Louisiana to the Texas plains.
Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry has been a vocal supporter of the Trump administration’s immigration agenda. In September, Landry joined Homeland Safety Secretary Kristi Noem to announce a partnership to develop ICE detention house within the state. In Decemeber, DHS launched an enforcement operation dubbed “Catahoula Crunch” focusing on undocumented immigrants in New Orleans and different elements of Louisiana, an effort it mentioned led to hundreds of arrests.
A spokesperson for Landry didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
Copyright 2026 Bloomberg.
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