Current Events > Worker who warned supervisors before hotel collapse will be deported

(+) Yeah! (+)

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/nov/22/new-orleans-hotel-collapse-deported-honduras

A construction worker who attempted to warn managers about building dangers and was seriously injured in last months deadly Hard Rock Hotel collapse in New Orleans, will be deported on Monday, his lawyers said this week.

Delmer Joel Ramrez Palma, a Honduran citizen, was working inside the 18-storey building when it dramatically crumbled on to a busy downtown intersection on 12 October, killing three and injuring dozens. He survived a fall from the ninth floor to the sixth by swinging from a rope.

Ramrez Palma was hospitalized with serious injuries, including head trauma and internal inflammation, and still requires surgery for an acute eye injury, according to his wife and two lawyers working on separate immigration and civil injury cases.

Immediately after the accident, he was interviewed by a Spanish-language media outlet. Two days later, he was arrested by immigration authorities while fishing with his family in a national wildlife refuge.

He has lived in New Orleans for 18 years.

According to his lawyers and his wife, Ramrez Palma had reported safety concerns including asymmetrical building measurements and uncured concrete too weak to support weight to his supervisors at King Company, a New Orleans construction firm, before the deadly collapse.

Construction managers allegedly told him to ignore the issues, according to Mary Yanik, senior staff attorney at the New Orleans Workers Center for Racial Justice, an advocacy group.

The US governments Occupational Safety and Health Administration (Osha) and the New Orleans police department are currently investigating the cause of the collapse. The bodies of two victims remain inside the building, which will be imploded in January.

Ramrez Palmas arrest highlights the unique risks undocumented immigrants face on job sites, advocates said.

The timing is highly suspicious and the circumstances of the arrest are extraordinarily suspicious, said Yanik, noting she had no direct evidence tying his arrest to his employer.

Tania Bueso, Ramrez Palmas wife, said the encounter with a US Fish and Wildlife Service ranger that led to her husbands arrest was unusual, but cant be certain it was targeted. She claims the officer seemed to actually be looking for him as he was resting in the shade. The ranger asked for a valid fishing license, which he had, and then for a drivers license, which he did not.

The family fishes regularly. Bueso said they had been through license checks before, but have never been asked for personal identification before the October encounter.

The Honduran mans treatment has sent a further chill through the undocumented community, already on high alert under Donald Trumps aggressive enforcement policies.

Theres already extraordinary fear in this environment from any worker to report labor violations, said Yanick.

Ramrez Palmas lawyers say his case illustrates how a crackdown on undocumented workers could also hamper investigations into the cause of the accident.

Theres really crucial information here that the public needs to get to the bottom of what happened at Hard Rock, she said.

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I read this last night too.

Pretty shitty but read the article, hes been ordered to be deported before.

wtf he did the right thing and he's being deported just because of some bullshit donald trump? That's fucked up :(
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He has lived in New Orleans for 18 years.

The longevity of stay argument - inconsequential, it would appear, in this case, except to obviously tug on the reader's heart strings.

Ramrez Palmas arrest highlights the unique risks undocumented immigrants face on job sites, advocates said.

Yeah, granted, if by 'unique risk' you're talking about stealing another person's social security number and using it on employment forms to avoid suspicion. Either that happened or the employer turned a blind eye and will (probably) go unscathed, as usual.

Tania Bueso, Ramrez Palmas wife, said the encounter with a US Fish and Wildlife Service ranger that led to her husbands arrest was unusual, but cant be certain it was targeted. She claims the officer seemed to actually be looking for him as he was resting in the shade. The ranger asked for a valid fishing license, which he had, and then for a drivers license, which he did not.

If we're getting down to parsing whether or not an encounter with a law enforcement officer was unusual or not, the search for discriminatory bias on the side of the government in any capacity in this case is starting to get off the rails.
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He survived a fall from the ninth floor to the sixth by swinging from a rope.

That's pretty hardcore. I'm not really sure how to picture it but it sounds very impressive.

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Relient_K posted...

He survived a fall from the ninth floor to the sixth by swinging from a rope.

That's pretty hardcore. I'm not really sure how to picture it but it sounds very impressive.

That feat alone should grant him citizenship imo. Can we just trade him out for one of the unimpressive slobs who was born here?
We need more Americans like this. Strong, responsible survivors.
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RescueBC posted...

Relient_K posted...

He survived a fall from the ninth floor to the sixth by swinging from a rope.

That's pretty hardcore. I'm not really sure how to picture it but it sounds very impressive.

That feat alone should grant him citizenship imo. Can we just trade him out for one of the unimpressive slobs who was born here?
We need more Americans like this. Strong, responsible survivors.

with him gone, it frees up jobs for those who weren't even looking for employment in that area.
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18-storey building when it dramatically crumbled

On an unrelated note, the unnecessary wording in news stories is hilarious. It 'dramatically' crumbled? As opposed to unimpressively collapsing? Is there any other way for a building of that size to collapse?
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RickyTheBAWSE posted...

RescueBC posted...

Relient_K posted...

He survived a fall from the ninth floor to the sixth by swinging from a rope.

That's pretty hardcore. I'm not really sure how to picture it but it sounds very impressive.

That feat alone should grant him citizenship imo. Can we just trade him out for one of the unimpressive slobs who was born here?
We need more Americans like this. Strong, responsible survivors.

with him gone, it frees up jobs for those who weren't even looking for employment in that area.

Yup.
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RickyTheBAWSE posted...

with him gone, it frees up jobs for those who weren't even looking for employment in that area.

RescueBC posted...

Yup.

Get out of my country >:(

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since i know a lot of civics / architects I have also met a lot of CMs.

CMs have been ummmmm never that intelligent. The i wanna make a quick buck and do nothing types tbqh