Over 100 Migrant Construction Workers Arrested in Florida
The operation took place at a site where apartments are being built near Florida State University, according to local media.
HAVANA TIMES – On Thursday, May 29, 2025, Federal US and Florida authorities arrested more than 100 migrants from Mexico, Colombia, Guatemala, Nicaragua, El Salvador, and Honduras at a construction site in Tallahassee, the state capital. It was the second raid of its kind in less than a month.
Activists from organizations such as the Florida Immigrant Coalition denounced the raid on social media, where videos of migrants caught off guard by the agents and a woman crying as her husband was taken away quickly went viral.
The Homeland Security Investigations office in Tampa, which is part of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), stated on social media that it had led the arrest of “more than 100 illegal immigrants, some previously deported and others with criminal records, at a major construction site.”
The operation stood out because it also involved the Florida Highway Patrol, which Republican Governor Ron DeSantis had ordered to carry out immigration raids to support President Donald Trump.
“In Florida, we are leading the effort to help the Trump Administration enforce federal immigration law. Today’s operation took place right here in Tallahassee. Detain, Deport. Deliver results for the American people,” posted the state attorney general, James Uthmeier, on social media.
Raid at Construction Site
The operation, for which more official details are still pending, occurred at a site where apartments are being built near Florida State University, according to local media. A photo shared by Homeland Security shows agents forcing the migrants to stand in a long line.
The operation reflects the growing number of raids targeting migrant construction workers in Florida. Just two weeks ago, authorities arrested more than two dozen undocumented immigrants in The Villages, an area in central Florida.
The Sunshine State was also the scene of a record-setting ICE operation in April 2025, during which more than 1,100 people were arrested in a single week, the highest number in a statewide immigration sweep in the agency’s history.
[Editor’s Note: No mention was made as to the name of the employers and whether they will get to keep the money they owe to the detained migrants.]
First published in Spanish by Confidencial and translated and posted in English by Havana Times.