Feds search Bollinger Shipyards in criminal probe, arrest 19 undocumented immigrants

quote:

---

Federal agents staged an extensive search of the Bollinger Shipyards facilities in Lockport on Tuesday as part of an "ongoing federal criminal investigation" led by the Department of Homeland Security and also detained several undocumented immigrants at the facility, authorities said.

The operation at the Lafourche Parish shipyard on Tuesday was led by agents from Homeland Security Investigations, the investigative arm of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, according to Bryan Cox, an ICE spokesman. Cox referred additional questions to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Louisiana.

---

quote:

---

U.S. Attorney Peter Strasser declined comment.

Cox said federal agents also arrested 19 "unlawfully present foreign nationals" at the Bollinger Shipyards location. Five of those people were placed in ICE detention while the other 14 were processed and released after being placed into deportation proceedings in federal immigration court, Cox said.

Federal law enforcement sources said the criminal probe is related to immigration matters but that the detention of undocumented workers was incidental to the criminal investigation at the shipyard. Federal officials would not say whether the undocumented immigrants detained at the shipyard were employed by Bollinger Shipyards.

---