An attorney representing Delmer Joel Ramirez Palma, a worker who faces imminent deportation after speaking out about a deadly construction site collapse in Louisiana last month, said investigators probing the incident are also looking into whether his detention by federal immigration officials was payback for trying to warn about conditions that led to the disaster.
Tania Bueso, Ramirez Palma’s wife, said he had warned superiors of conditions at the site, saying, “He talks about how this disaster could have been avoided if they had been paid more attention when they could see—clearly—that the building, in some areas, wasn’t right.” He discussed surviving the ordeal in a Spanish-language interview, but within hours of that appearance, he was swept up by unshackled immigration agents.
Ramirez Palma had already filed a lawsuit, along with four other workers, “seeking damages for injuries they said they suffered,” NOLA.com reported last month. “They sued the main players behind the ill-fated project, accusing them of causing the collapse by using inadequate materials and supports.” Mary Yanik, an attorney with the New Orleans Workers’ Center for Racial Justice, said Ramirez Palma had then spoken twice with OSHA before he was moved by Immigration and Customs Enforcement to a Louisiana facility that is a last stop before deportation. “She said an investigator from OSHA’s whistleblower and retaliation division also planned an interview,” The New York Times reported.
Of course, ICE’s action—which the agency continues to insist has no basis in retaliation—is having its intended effect. Bueso said there are other men who also worked at the site but are afraid of cooperating with the investigation. “And one of them told him, ‘No, brother. We’re all worried about what happened to you. We’re scared the same thing will happen to us,’” she said one told him. Whistleblowers have been a target of this administration as of late, and that even extends to everyday workers around us like Ramirez Palma. He should be safe to speak out, but instead ICE is clearly putting policies of hate over safety.
While Ramirez Palma’s advocates feared he could have been deported as early as Monday, as of Tuesday he remains in Louisiana. The New Orleans Workers’ Center for Racial Justice is urging advocates to call the OSHA administrator to ask for an intervention in Ramirez Palma’s deportation. “If investigators are going to learn what caused the collapse and who is responsible, undocumented workers like Joel need to be able to share what they know,” the center said.