ICE Operation at Palatka Primary School Construction Site Leaves Workers Detained and a Putnam County Community Shaken

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement led an operation on Thursday, Nov. 6, at the construction site of the future Palatka Primary School in Putnam County, detaining multiple workers and prompting a precautionary lockdown at a neighboring school, according to the Putnam County Sheriff's Office and News4JAX. Days later, a mother told the station her son, a U.S. citizen who works on the project, is too frightened to go back.

The operation brings the Trump administration's worksite enforcement campaign to a public school project paid for by local taxpayers in a small Northeast Florida city, and it comes as Florida continues to lead much of the country in immigration arrests carried out with the help of state and local police.

What happened on Nov. 6

The Putnam County Sheriff's Office confirmed that the activity at the site was an ICE operation. According to the sheriff's office, a traffic stop on State Road 19 before 7:30 a.m. led several people to run from law enforcement into nearby woods. Deputies, Palatka police and officers from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission responded to a mutual aid request to help locate them.

Because the site sits near an operating school and there was a possibility that one of the people who fled was armed, Palatka Intermediate School was placed on a modified lockdown for several hours, the sheriff's office said. Authorities did not confirm that anyone was armed. The law enforcement presence was scaled back by about 3:30 p.m. and lifted later that afternoon, News4JAX reported.

Video recorded by a neighbor who said he regularly brings water to the workers showed officers, some wearing masks, taking workers into custody and escorting them off the property. The Palatka Daily News reported that the video showed at least 13 handcuffed people being led from the site. Neither ICE nor the sheriff's office has released an official count of how many people were detained, and no charges have been announced.

The Department of Homeland Security later confirmed to News4JAX that ICE led the operation.

The school being built

The job site is the former Kelley Smith Elementary School campus in Palatka, where the Putnam County School District is building Palatka Primary School, a new campus for kindergarten through second grade. It is one of the projects funded by the district's $300 million bond referendum, which also paid for the new Palatka Intermediate School for grades three through six, the same school that went into lockdown during the operation, according to WUFT.

The district has said the new primary school is expected to open in August 2027. While it is under construction, the district has moved its youngest Palatka students to another campus.

Superintendent Rick Surrency said in a statement that "there was a law enforcement operation that took place at the construction site of Palatka Primary School." He said the contractor, AJAX, "cooperated with officers and kept the district informed about the situation," and that construction was delayed by several hours. News4JAX reported that it reached out to AJAX after the operation and again for its Nov. 9 follow-up but had not received a response.

A mother's account

On Nov. 9, News4JAX published an interview with a mother who asked not to be identified and who said her son, a U.S. citizen, was working at the site that morning. The station said it had not independently confirmed her account.

She said her son called her that morning and she left work to reach him. "Every road to get to that construction site was blocked off by police," she told the station. She said she watched SWAT officers, the Florida Highway Patrol and ICE leaving the site, and that her son told her an agent pointed a gun at him. She said her son was shaken and has not returned to the job.

Several other people told News4JAX that relatives or friends were affected but declined interviews, citing fear of retaliation. A neighbor who also asked not to be named said he supported the operation if it involved people in the country illegally. When the station returned to the site, the parking lot was full and workers appeared to be back on the job.

Local officials keep their distance

The sheriff's office emphasized that the operation was not its own. "This was not a sheriff's office investigation and our role was supporting another agency as we do with other organizations," it said in a statement, adding that any further details would be at the discretion of federal authorities.

The Palatka Daily News reported that ICE has conducted numerous operations in Putnam County and that Surrency said a prior raid at a construction site in South Putnam "created no issues" for the district.

Part of a wider Florida pattern

Construction sites have been a recurring target of immigration enforcement in Florida since early in Trump's second term. In May 2025, ICE said it arrested more than 100 undocumented immigrants at construction sites in Tallahassee, including a student apartment project near Florida State University, in an operation the agency said was meant to eliminate illegal employment, according to WUSF.

Statewide, an Associated Press analysis published in June found that nearly 39,000 immigrants were arrested in Florida between Jan. 20, 2025, and March 11, 2026, more than triple the count in the same span before that. The AP counted 347 Florida state and local agencies participating in the crackdown, and it reported that an immigration attorney in the Jacksonville area represented at least 23 clients detained by local police.

In Palatka, the district said the disruption cost several hours of work. The larger question for the county is whether the operation affects the contractor's crews and the school's schedule in the months ahead.

What's next

Key details remain unanswered: how many people were detained, whether any were U.S. citizens or lawful residents, whether the people who fled were found, and whether the operation targeted the contractor, a subcontractor or individual workers. ICE has not released those details publicly, and AJAX has not commented. The school district has not indicated any change to the project's August 2027 opening date. Families and workers in Putnam County will be watching for whether federal authorities provide an accounting of the operation and whether further enforcement follows at other local job sites.