An oysterman working in the U.S. state of Louisiana drowned last month while fleeing from the U.S. Coast Guard, with deckhands allegedly concerned the officers were working with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
The Coast Guard told NOLA.com that the patrol was not part of a joint operation with ICE but the service had swept the area with ICE agents a month earlier. That November patrol had resulted in the U.S. government detaining 10 oystermen.
Deckhands from Honduras working on a commercial fishing vessel in Louisiana suspected another immigration roundup when four Coast Guard officers arrived at the commercial fishing docks in Hopedale, Louisiana, on 18 December. Two deckhands slipped into the water to evade capture, one of whom – Walter Francisco Cerrato Cabrera – drowned.
NOLA.com reported that Cabrera was 48 years old, could not swim, and had spent 20 years working on area oyster boats.
“I sure hope God made him an angel because he was a good, good guy. Anything you asked him: ‘I got it.’ Just an A1 guy,” Robbie Campo of Campo's Marina told NOLA.com. “Whoever needed a deckhand, he was just a hard-working dude.”
Oystermen were able to recover Cabrera’s body later in the day. The Coast Guard claimed it was unaware of Cabrera’s presence until after the fact.
