Six workers in the Lower Keys who were detained by immigration agents are now sitting in jail. Now, many are wondering why this happened in the first place.
The men, who are not being identified due to privacy concerns, work for a small roofing company. According to an incident report from the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office, they were heading to do a job early in the morning on May 27 when they were stopped by immigration authorities along U.S. 1 in Sugarloaf Key.
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WATCH HEREThe report states Monroe County deputies were asked to transport some of the men to a detention facility in the Keys “for deportation.”
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"They are legally here. They have an authorization to stay," said Regilucia Smith, the attorney of the men, who are from Nicaragua.
Smith says it should not have happened because five of the six have their paperwork in order with pending asylum cases.
"Valid work permit, not even close to be expired," she said. "… again, no criminal records, not here, not in Nicaragua."
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Their co-workers also want to know why.
“It was pretty obvious from the beginning that they were pulled over simply because they were six Latino men in a work truck," said Virgil Scardina, who works with them.
Vincent Scardina is the owner of the roofing company where they worked. He said losing these six men is losing a third of his workers.
"It's going to be really hard to replace those guys," he said. "We're not able in Key West to just replace people as easily as, say, a big city, very limited people to pull from, and then you would have to train them, and that takes sometimes years.”
He said it takes not only a financial toll, but an emotional one.
"Well, you know, you get to know these guys, you become their friends, just not an employer, but a friend, and you see what happens to their family. It's… It's quite a shock," Vincent Scardina said.
Given his support for President Donald Trump, we asked what he would tell the commander in chief if he had a chance.
"What happened here? This situation is just totally just blatantly not at all what they said it was," he said.
While Vincent agrees with most of the president’s policies, he thought the Trump administration was going to focus solely on deporting criminals. It seems immigration officials, he says, are just trying to meet quotas.
"It's not just happening to me. I mean, it's happening across the board to several contractors," he said. "I know they're all being hit by this hard. I know of one landscaper that lost nine or 10 of his whole crew he had and he's just totally out of business all of a sudden, just like that.”
He wants his workers released.
"Our business is struggling. You know, make no mistake. This has the potential to cause us some significant problems," Virgil Scardina said. “But I still get to go home and give my child a hug at night. These guys do not, and they don't deserve that."
The immigration attorney told NBC6 she has filed a motion so they can be released on bond, but things have become complicated as three of the men have been transferred to detention centers in Texas and California.
NBC6 has reached out to ICE. A spokesperson says they’re working on getting us information.
