Whistleblowers are to be commended for their courage and willingness to come forward with information that can help others and protect them from harm. Unfortunately, between the time a whistleblower first reports a concern and the time the concern becomes publicly evident, tragedies can occur. A construction worker who had reported construction safety violations to his supervisor was seriously injured when the building he was working on collapsed. Many others were wounded in the Hard Rock hotel collapse in New Orleans, and three people perished.
Delmer Joel Ramirez Palma is a citizen of Honduras. He and his family have lived in New Orleans for eighteen years. When the Hard Rock hotel collapsed, Ramirez suffered trauma to his head and an eye injury that will require surgery, in addition to internal inflammation and injury. Several days after the hotel collapse, after Ramirez had been released from the hospital, he was fishing with his family when Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials arrested him because he did not have identification documents. He was recently deported, and the timing of his arrest raises concerns that his deportation is retaliation against Ramirez Palma for reporting safety violations before the hotel collapse and for speaking with the media after the collapse occurred. He and his family had been fishing several times before, always with a valid fishing license, and they report that the October encounter with ICE officials is the first time they were asked for personal identification.
The hotel collapse is under investigation by the New Orleans Police Department and the United States Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA). The investigating agencies need information from Ramirez Palma and other workers about what they saw and experienced at the hotel site before the collapse, especially safety violations they may have witnessed. Some of the safety concerns that Ramirez Palma reported to his supervisors include uncured concrete that was too weak to support weight and asymmetry within the structure that could impact its stability. He states that upon voicing his concerns to his supervisors, he was told to continue working. He also says that he was threatened with replacement on the job site.
Workplace safety advocates, immigration advocates, and others urged ICE to delay or stop Ramirez Palma’s deportation, to no avail. Deportation could make Ramirez Palma unavailable to the investigating agencies, possibly depriving them of critical information that could assist them in determining the cause of the deadly collapse. It is also reported that other undocumented workers may have information that could help investigators. They are reluctant to speak about the accident because they fear that they, too, could be deported. Multiple undocumented workers had reported safety concerns while working at the Hard Rock hotel site, and it is crucial that the investigating agencies not lose access to them.
A whistleblower protection attorney is a powerful ally in the face of painful retaliation. If you have experienced retaliation as the result of reporting safety, health, financial, or other concerns, call the Mississippi Whistleblower Attorneys of Barrett Law PLLC today at 1 (800) 707-9577 for an initial consultation.