Two men who were about to begin work on the roof of a Metairie restaurant were briefly detained by U.S. Border Patrol on Thursday, Dec. 4, in an encounter that left witnesses shocked, then relieved, when the workers were returned to the same parking lot minutes later.

The incident unfolded outside St. Mary’s Restaurant, where the two men had been working on roof repairs for months. Daniel Victory, a manager at the restaurant, said the workers arrived nearly seconds before several Border Patrol vehicles pulled in.

“They weren’t in the parking lot for less than a minute. Federal agents got out of their vehicles and detained them,” Victory said.

Witnesses say they showed paperwork

According to Victory, and other witnesses, roughly a dozen agents surrounded the men. He says the interaction

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