(Bloomberg) — An immigration raid on a luxury Puerto Rico hotel partially owned by billionaire investor John Paulson led the US Department of Homeland Security to arrest dozens of construction workers from the Dominican Republic.
Some 53 workers, all presumed to be undocumented, were working at the La Concha Resort in San Juan, but weren’t hotel employees, Special Agent Rebecca Gonzalez-Ramos told reporters Thursday in San Juan. She declined to name the construction company the team worked for.
Paulson’s local company, Paulson Puerto Rico, said those arrested were employed by “an external contractor currently performing certain construction work” at its facilities.
“While we are not directly related to the events, we are cooperating fully with the authorities and reaffirm our commitment to strict compliance with all applicable laws and regulations,” Damian Pagan, hotel security director, said in an emailed statement. “We have directed our contractors to take steps to ensure all workers they use on our job have legal status.”
Paulson, a staunch supporter of President Donald Trump, owns several high-profile properties in Puerto Rico, including La Concha in the heart of San Juan’s tourist district. His company is also building a luxury residential tower, called the Vanderbilt Residences, just a few blocks from the hotel.
Puerto Rico, a US Commonwealth, has long depended on manual labor from the neighboring Dominican Republic, particularly for the construction and agriculture sectors. Commercial, family and cultural ties run deep between the two.
But Puerto Rico has been implementing orders from Trump’s administration to crack down on illegal immigration. So far this year some 364 people have been arrested, Gonzalez-Ramos said.
The vast majority of those detained have been from the Dominican Republic, but agents have also arrested Haitians, Venezuelans, Mexicans and Brazilians, she said.
Asked how many undocumented migrants there may be on the island of 3.2 million people, Gonzalez-Ramos said there was no clear data.
“That’s a number that’s complicated for us to determine,” she said. “It’s a complex issue.”
–With assistance from Katherine Burton.
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