There was a fight yesterday at 341 Caja Del Rio Road, which happens to be the site of the
Buckman Direct Diversion Water Treatment Plant
. It got pretty ugly, apparently.
From the Santa Fe County Sheriff's Office:
That's the suspect, pictured:
Alejandro Romero-Hernandez
, age 37. The county jail's website says he's being held on aggravated battery and an
from US Immigrations and Customs Enforcement.
Why are immigration officials interested in a laborer at one of the largest public works projects in the state
? This is where it gets interesting.
According to Officer Stephen Orr's report (excerpted below), Romero-Hernandez
worked for major Buckman contractor
,
as did the victim
of his attack, whose name SFR has redacted because we are uncertain of his immigration status.
Rick Carpenter, the city of Santa Fe's Buckman project director, did not immediately return a cell phone message asking for comment.
In 2008, a joint venture of Western Summit and CH2M Hill was awarded a
$181 million design-build contract
by the
Buckman Direct Diversion Board
.
The water project is
and, although its federal stimulus application was
last year, a recent New Mexico Recovery and Reinvestment Office report (
) shows a relatively modest $141,000 stimulus allocation for modification of the electrical system at the Buckman site, funneled through the City of Santa Fe.
The Buckman project was
"
more than 500 jobs per year
" with an estimated
$93 million in new "labor income."
It now appears that at least one of those jobs—and an unknown amount of public money, paid for in part by
—might have gone to an undocumented immigrant laborer.
Although it is often a first step toward deportation, the ICE detainer on Romero-Hernandez does not necessarily mean he is living in the country without the right papers. From the liberal-leaning
:
SFR left messages with Sheriff Greg Solano and Undersheriff Robert Garcia asking for more details on why the ICE detainer was placed on Romero-Hernandez.
Update 1:30 pm March 19
: "I have no idea who would do that," Undersheriff Garcia tells SFR, "because
it's our policy not to call ICE
."
Read an excerpt from the Santa Fe County Sheriff's Report below:
(Click the image to enlarge.)
Note that while the victim was observed with apparent puncture wounds, Romero-Hernandez denied stabbing him with a screwdriver.
