The Richland Parish Sheriff’s Office announced the arrest of 13 illegal aliens Saturday near the Meta artificial intelligence facility construction site.
RPSO said, “With one of the largest artificial intelligence facilities in the world and one of the largest construction sites in North America located here in our parish, we are faced with unprecedented challenges—traffic management being one of them.”
Saturday morning, deputies with the Richland Parish Sheriff’s Office focused traffic enforcement efforts on commercial truck traffic entering the Meta construction site. During these traffic stops, 13 individuals who were stopped for traffic violations were found to be unlawfully present in the United States. All individuals were detained and released to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
None of the individuals detained possessed a valid Louisiana driver’s license.
The detained individuals were from Venezuela, Honduras, Guatemala and Mexico. One individual from Venezuela requested voluntary return to his home country due to the recent regime change and was processed by ICE.
The Meta data center site is between Rayville and Holly Ridge, about 30 miles east of Monroe. The 4 million-square-foot campus on 2,250 acres is a $10 billion investment by the parent company of Facebook.
Sheriff Neal Harwell has been in daily contact with Meta officials, who are actively cooperating with the sheriff’s office to help keep Richland Parish citizens safe, according to RPSO.
For the latest local news, subscribe FOR FREE to the Lincoln Parish Journal and receive an email each weekday morning at 6:55 right to your inbox. Just CLICK HERE to sign up.
