Following an immigration raid at the site of the new Gulf Shores High School, the general contractor on the job spoke exclusively to 1819 News, saying the company is working with authorities to make improvements.
The Gulf of America Homeland Security Task Force arrested 36 workers suspected of being in the United States illegally on Tuesday.
The company building the school is Rabren General Contractors.
Matt Rabren, the president and CEO of the company, said he has signed immigration affidavits for employees and subcontractor employees. Now, he is working with authorities to ensure this never happens again.
"Rabren General Contractors is sorry for the events that happened at Gulf Shores at the project site," Rabren said. "We have all of our subcontractors and trade partners sign immigration affidavits, but obviously, that is not enough to abide by all the laws of our great country. So, Rabren needs to do some things differently."
He said he wants to do what he can out of respect for the community and law enforcement to keep the public safe.
Rabren commended his team, his trade partners, subcontractors, Gulf Shores Mayor Robert Craft and the city council for their work on the project. As for his team, he said they all want to do the right thing.
"We've got some problems that we're going to clean up, and we're going to work with the authorities and get that done," Rabren added. "So, we're sorry, we're embarrassed, and we will get it cleaned up. We just can't allow this to happen. We respect our country and our laws and want to back all of those."
The company is also working on the new RSA State House in Montgomery.
Rabren said the incident will not impact the timeline of any of the projects.
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