{"id":6777,"date":"2025-10-18T05:46:16","date_gmt":"2025-10-18T05:46:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/6777\/"},"modified":"2025-10-18T05:46:16","modified_gmt":"2025-10-18T05:46:16","slug":"ice-detains-17-workers-at-five-10-flats-construction-site-in-bethlehem-authorities-say","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/6777\/","title":{"rendered":"ICE detains 17 workers at Five 10 Flats construction site in Bethlehem, authorities say"},"content":{"rendered":"

Federal agents with the Department of Homeland Security <\/a>arrested 17 construction workers early Wednesday working on the Five 10 Flats<\/a> restoration project, authorities said.<\/p>\n

City police said the agents were canvassing the area just before 7 a.m. in the 500 block of East Third Street. <\/p>\n

The restoration project comes after a May 2 blaze torched <\/a>the apartment and retail complex. The fire displaced all 135 residents and businesses.<\/p>\n

A U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesman told lehighvalleylive.com investigators on the property included ICE\u2019s Homeland Security Investigations Allentown; and Enforcement and Removal Operations Philadelphia; along with federal law enforcement partners. <\/p>\n

The agencies were conducting what is known as an \u201cHSI-led worksite enforcement operation,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

The spokesman said all 17 workers were interviewed and then arrested on immigration violations. The group was then subsequently detained, pending removal proceedings. <\/p>\n

Wednesday\u2019s incident continues to remain under investigation by the law enforcement agencies.<\/p>\n

The Morning Call newspaper, citing witnesses and social media platforms, is reporting the national Paul Davis Restoration Experts is handling the remediation<\/a> at Five 10 Flats. A spokeswoman for the contractor did not immediately return a request for comment Wednesday evening.<\/p>\n

John Callahan, director of business development for Peron Development, which built Five 10 Flats; also couldn\u2019t immediately be reached for comment.<\/p>\n

Bethlehem police said they responded to the scene Wednesday, along with other city emergency workers, to help a person suffering from a \u201cmedical emergency.\u201d <\/p>\n

City police were notified of ICE\u2019s investigation, but were not briefed further and weren\u2019t part of the arrests, Bethlehem Police Capt. Nicholas Lechman had said.<\/p>\n

Bethlehem Mayor J. William Reynolds echoed city officials also weren\u2019t privy to much information about the incident.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe found out about the arrests in real time, and we have not been kept in the loop at all throughout the day,\u201d the mayor said Wednesday evening. <\/p>\n

\u201cAs far as the city of Bethlehem is concerned, every department in the city, including our police department, will continue to treat every citizen with compassion, dignity and offer every service without consideration to how long residents have called our city home,\u201d Reynolds added.<\/p>\n

Please subscribe now and support the local journalism YOU rely on and trust.<\/p>\n

Pamela Sroka-Holzmann may be reached at pholzmann@lehighvalleylive.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

If you purchase a product or register for an account through a link on our site, we may receive compensation. By using this site, you consent to our User Agreement<\/a> and agree that your clicks, interactions, and personal information may be collected, recorded, and\/or stored by us and social media and other third-party partners in accordance with our Privacy Policy.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Federal agents with the Department of Homeland Security arrested 17 construction workers early Wednesday working on the Five…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6778,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[153,155,154],"class_list":["post-6777","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem-headlines","tag-bethlehem-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6777","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6777"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6777\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6778"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6777"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6777"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6777"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}