November 30, 2019 | 9:24am
Two large cranes from the Hard Rock Hotel construction collapse come crashing down after being detonated for implosion. AP
An illegal immigrant who is a key witness in the investigation of last month’s New Orleans hotel collapse has been deported, despite pleas from activists.
Delmer Joel Ramirez Palma, 38, was sent on a one-way flight to Honduras Friday after years of appeals to the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency were denied, the Daily Mail reported.
Activists urging a stay in Palma’s deportation said his departure would make the investigation into the collapse of the Hard Rock Hotel considerably more difficult.
“We’re deeply concerned about the gaping hole this leaves in the investigation into the Hard Rock Hotel collapse,’ said Mary Yanik, a staff attorney at the New Orleans Workers’ Center for Racial Justice, told the paper.
The Oct. 13 collapse of the semi-constructed hotel killed two people. Palma’s wife, Tania Bueso, said her husband, who has been working in the building, had attempted to warn superiors of unsafe conditions before the fateful day.
“He talks about how this disaster could have been avoided if they had been paid more attention when they could see — clearly — that the building, in some areas, wasn’t right,” she told Nola.com. “When he used the laser (measurement tool), he also said he had to check two or three times to make sure the measurement was right, because the building was so imbalanced.”