BETHLEHEM, Pa. — U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrested 17 workers early Wednesday restoring the fire-damaged Five10 Flats apartment building.
All were detained for alleged immigration violations, authorities said.
The "worksite enforcement operation," led by ICE's Homeland Security Investigations Allentown office and Enforcement and Removal Operations Philadelphia, led to the employees being "encountered, interviewed and arrested for immigration violations and subsequently detained pending removal proceedings."
No other information would be released due to the ongoing investigation, according to an ICE spokesperson.
Agents were seen in the morning in the parking lot of Five10 Flats with an unmarked white bus.
“We found out about the arrests in real time, and we have not been kept in the loop at all throughout the day," Bethlehem Mayor J. William Reynolds said in an emailed statement Wednesday evening.
"As far as the city of Bethlehem is concerned, every department in the city, including our police department, will continue to treat every citizen with compassion, dignity and offer every service without consideration to how long residents have called our city home.”
Former Bethlehem Mayor John Callahan, director of business development for Peron Development, which built Five10 Flats, did not respond to a request for comment.
The building's assigned restoration company, Paul Davis Restoration of Montgomery & Berks counties, also did not return a request for comment.
Word of the 17 arrests came hours after the enforcement action sparked outrage on social media and prompted organizers to plan an ICE protest for 7 p.m. Thursday at Bethlehem Town Hall.
Prior to release of the ICE statement, city police and the mayor's office said they had little information on what transpired.
Police and the mayor's office issued a news release Wednesday morning saying federal immigration officials were in Southside Bethlehem searching for an individual "related to an immigration violation and criminal investigation."
An eyewitness who recorded video said he saw several agents and one man who was handcuffed outside of an unmarked white bus.
"I seemed to have walked up on the tail end of this," said Jerone Darden, who lives nearby. "I specifically saw one person in handcuffs, a chain belt and shackles."
The city's news release said that shortly before 7 a.m., Bethlehem Police Department "received a courtesy notification from agents with the Department of Homeland Security that federal agents were actively searching" for the individual.
The search involved the area of the 500 block of East Third Street, police said.
Police did not address whether anyone was taken into custody.
The area is the site of a large restoration project in the wake of a May fire at Five10 Flats that routed all 135 residents and ground-floor businesses, though police did not reference Five10 Flats in the release.
A worker on the scene Wednesday was asked by LehighValleyNews.com about the early morning incident, but said he was not authorized to speak to the media and asked a reporter to leave the area.
During the investigation, "federal agents reported that one person at the scene was suffering from a medical emergency," and Bethlehem Emergency Medical Services and city police responded "to address that issue," police said in the release.
"The Bethlehem Police Department did not participate in the arrest or detention of any persons at this location, and did not provide any law enforcement resources beyond the stated medical emergency," the release said.
Police said they are "unaware of the existence of any federal arrest warrants related to this incident. No other issues were reported."
Police said they had no further information on the incident, and directed further inquiries to the Department of Homeland Security and other federal entities.
Darden said he recorded his video around 8:15 a.m. He said he was present as several vehicles, including the bus, left the parking lot of Five10 Flats.
"I was able to hold my phone up to the windows of the bus and I believe I saw two other people on that bus," he said.
Darden said he yelled insults and "Shame!" at agents as he was recording from a distance.
"I was definitely getting a bunch of stares but nobody came up or was in my face about any of it," he said. "This is about making sure that the community is alerted that this is going on right here, right now."
