Florida Construction News staff writer
A federal grand jury has indicted 16 people across Florida, including six arrested at a Tallahassee construction site, for allegedly reentering the United States illegally after previously being deported, federal prosecutors announced.
The indictments were issued by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Florida. Six of the defendants were taken into custody last month during a raid at a construction site on Gaines Street in Tallahassee. The site was reportedly linked to an ongoing criminal investigation by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Another individual was arrested in Madison County earlier this month.
The individuals, ranging in age from 22 to 48, are from Mexico, Honduras, Nicaragua and Guatemala. Prosecutors said most had previously been deported between 1997 and 2022. If convicted, each faces up to two years in federal prison and a $250,000 fine.
The cases are part of Operation Take Back America, a national initiative that aligns resources from the Department of Justice’s Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces and Project Safe Neighborhoods to combat illegal immigration and related criminal activity.
The investigation is being led by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Homeland Security Investigations, and several federal and state agencies, including the Florida Highway Patrol, Florida Department of Law Enforcement, FBI, DEA, U.S. Marshals Service, IRS Criminal Investigations, and the sheriffs’ offices in Escambia and Santa Rosa counties.
Assistant U.S. Attorneys Jessica Etherton, Harley Ferguson, Alicia Forbes, Justin Keen, Walter Narramore and Eric Welch are prosecuting the cases.
