TUPPER LAKE — More than a week after a U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement raid resulted in nine employees being detained at the Tupper Lake Pine Mill, the parent company says it has yet to reach them.

The mill is owned by the Matra Group, which is headquartered in Quebec. The company’s director of marketing, Jordan McKay, said Wednesday afternoon that the company had been unsuccessful in its efforts to reach the employees who were detained.

“Unfortunately, no update on our side,” she said. “We have still not been able to get in contact with our employees.”

She said the company has been continuing to make those efforts, but that once the employees were in ICE custody, their options to reach them were limited and largely out of their control.

“We’re still … discussing with our legal team (as to) what our options are but as of right now, nothing has moved on that front,” she said.

McKay was unable to disclose the detained employees’ nationalities in a phone call with the Enterprise on Friday. In a statement released last week, Matra Group Co-President and Director of Manufacturing Operations Nicholas Drouin said, that to the company’s knowledge, all of the detained employees were authorized to work in the U.S. and that the company verifies this through the I-9 process.

“Nine employees were detained, all of whom were, to our knowledge, authorized to work in the United States, as we verify all employees through the I-9 process,” he said.

All employees working in the U.S. are required to have an I-9 form on file to prove they have the right to work, and every employer is required to verify that form, according to the U.S. Customs and Immigration Services, a federal agency responsible for the country’s naturalization and immigration system.

“The employer must examine these documents to determine whether they reasonably appear to be genuine and relate to the employee, then record the document information on the employee’s Form I-9,” the website states.

ICE is one of the U.S. federal agencies that can perform audits of these forms. An ICE spokesperson declined to provide specific information regarding the Tupper Lake Pine Mill raid in a message to the Enterprise on Tuesday, pointing to it’s status as an ongoing investigation.

“While we cannot comment on ongoing investigations, Immigration and Customs Enforcement is following executive orders in conducting routine daily operations involving targeted individuals and locations,” the email stated. “ICE develops leads based on public tips, intelligence and ongoing investigations.”

McKay also cited that because of the ongoing investigation, Matra was unable to provide any further comment on the matter as of press time Wednesday evening. She added that the company was cooperating with the investigation and trying to support its workers.

“The investigation is still ongoing and we are working with our lawyers to ensure we are fully cooperating while also investigating what we can do to support the employees,” she wrote.

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Staff Writer Aaron Marbone contributed to this report.