A company owned by a St. Tammany Parish constable and an Arkansas state representative hired the bus full of laborers that caused a fatal accident on Interstate 10 near LaPlace on Sunday, a co-owner of the company said, and the driver not only lacked a license but had racked up five previous citations for that, records show.

Federal authorities on Monday issued an immigration detainer for the bus driver, who lacked a driver's license of any sort — a strong indication that the Honduran national will be deported after his criminal case has been adjudicated and he has served any resulting prison time.

The roughly two dozen workers in the bus, most of whom received minor injuries, were en route to Baton Rouge to seek jobs with the firm Wallace, Rush, Schmidt Inc., which employs crews remediating flooded properties and which provided the bus, according to David Wallace, the Arkansas legislator who is one of the company's three principals.

Eddie Schmidt, the longtime Ward 4 constable for St. Tammany Parish, is also a principal in the firm.

The bus driver, Denis Yasmir Amaya Rodriguez, 37, has remained in the United States for years without legal permission even as he repeatedly has encountered local law enforcement, who have cited him at least six times for driving without a license. He even filed an unsuccessful lawsuit in Jefferson Parish following a 2014 crash before pleading guilty to driving without a license in that case, according to court documents.

Amaya remained behind bars Monday on two counts of negligent homicide, negligent injuring, reckless operation and driving without a license.

Officials with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement have asked authorities in St. John the Baptist Parish to notify them before releasing Amaya, citing his arrest on felony counts following the crash on Interstate 10.

It's not clear whether ICE previously encountered Amaya before his arrest Sunday. But his checkered driving history highlights the agency's often controversial policies regarding immigration enforcement — an approach that focuses on the deportation of felons and largely ignores traffic offenses. Amaya was pulled over by Louisiana State Police as recently as Aug. 5, but the trooper did not contact ICE.

"ICE is focused on smart, effective immigration enforcement that prioritizes the removal of criminal aliens and other individuals who pose a threat to national security, public safety and border security," Thomas Byrd, an agency spokesman, said in an emailed statement. "Aliens convicted of crimes involving violence are among ICE’s highest priority for removal from the country."

Deputies in Jefferson Parish booked Amaya in June 2011 on allegations he punched his live-in girlfriend and then struck her with a cellphone — charges that later were dismissed.

Court records show that, before Sunday, authorities had cited Amaya five times for driving without a license since September 2012. He pleaded guilty in four of those cases, one of which also accused him of improperly changing lanes and careless operation of a vehicle.

Donald "Chick" Foret, a former federal prosecutor, said a traffic court judge could sentence someone convicted of driving without a license to six months of jail time, but that is rarely, if ever, done. That means people know they can be convicted of driving without a license and most likely avoid going to jail, Foret said.

"If an illegal alien can afford to pay the fines and court costs, the only penalty that (likely) will be assessed to him or her for multiple offenses is monetary," Foret said.

In two of his earlier cases, Amaya was stopped by a state trooper. That agency does not require troopers to investigate the immigration status of motorists they pull over, but troopers may ask ICE to respond if, for instance, they encounter someone suspected of a violent crime or distributing drugs, said Trooper Melissa Matey, a State Police spokeswoman.

Amaya was driving a party bus carrying two dozen workers from New Orleans to Baton Rouge when he apparently lost control of the bus and struck a fire engine that had stopped on Interstate 10 at the scene of an earlier wreck.

Wallace, Rush, Schmidt has hundreds of employees working in Baton Rouge right now, focusing on gutting commercial structures damaged in the recent flooding, according to David Wallace. Wallace told The Advocate that a company liaison named "Edgar" recruited the workers and rented the party bus; he said he could not recall Edgar's last name.

The bus was owned by AM Party Bus, a trade name of Kristina’s Transportation LLC of Jefferson. AM Party Bus did not respond to a request for comment Monday.

A search of records in New Orleans and Jefferson did not show that Kristina's has a for-hire transportation license.

Wallace insisted his company hires only laborers with proper immigration papers. The company relied on Kristina's Transportation to ensure its drivers are licensed, he said.

"We do not hire illegals," Wallace said. "We look at their right-to-work documents, and we make sure they have the right to work in our country."

But at least one person on the bus — the driver — was not in the country legally. WWL-TV reported Monday that Amaya had been working for WRS' recruiting liaison, as well as for Schmidt, the St. Tammany constable. Schmidt could not be reached.

Either way, Amaya's acquaintances said Monday that he had merely been trying to make a living for himself, often taking jobs roofing, painting and landscaping, sending money home to relatives in Honduras.

He spent some of his free time worshiping at Spanish-language services held at an evangelical church in Fat City and frequenting a Latin American grocery just down the street from an apartment neighbors said he rented.

"Everybody's a loser in this situation," said one of Amaya's acquaintances, speaking on the condition of anonymity. "You have two people who lost their lives, and (Amaya) is probably going to have to do some (jail) time over this."

"He has to do something to be punished for it," the acquaintance added. "But he's really a human being."

The wreck occurred early Sunday, when the bus struck another vehicle and three firefighters who had been responding to an earlier crash, sending them over a guardrail and into a swampy waterway some 40 feet below. Col. Mike Edmonson, the State Police superintendent, described a "heroic effort" by first responders, who used a ladder to rescue the firemen, one of whom died in a trooper's arms.

"This was human nature at its finest," Edmonson said. "As sad as this event was, I could not be more proud of the troopers, first responders and ordinary citizens who assisted."

Spencer Chauvin, a district chief with St. John Fire Services, was pronounced dead at River Parishes Hospital. A passenger in the other vehicle, 21-year-old Jermaine Starr, of Moss Point, Mississippi, also was killed in the crash.

Another fireman, William Mack Beal, was treated and released Sunday, while the third, Nicholas Saale, remained hospitalized in guarded condition at University Medical Center in New Orleans. Cain Dufrene, the chief of operations for St. John Fire Services, said Saale had been removed from a breathing machine and "was actually talking and cutting up" Monday.

"It lifted my spirits," Dufrene said. "But he's got a little road ahead of him."

Dufrene said that Chauvin had dedicated his entire life to public service. He said the father of two would be best remembered for the leadership and courage he showed during Hurricane Isaac.

"The guy put out a house fire in 4 feet of water in the back of LaPlace," Dufrene said. "He made sure that fire was extinguished. That, in and of itself, is something you don’t hear about much. Isaac is where he really led the guys."

The crash injured more than 30 people, including the two dozen workers who had been passengers on the party bus. Matey, the State Police spokeswoman, said troopers had not yet identified all of those victims, who had been taken to several hospitals in the area.

"Two of them are in a lot of pain throughout their whole body," said Cristian Silva, a Harvey attorney representing three of the bus passengers, all of whom have been released from the hospital. "One couldn’t get up from the sofa."

Staff writer Gordon Russell and WWL-TV reporter David Hammer contributed to this report.