September 11, 2025
We write to you from Ellabell, Georgia, where just one week ago, on Sept. 4, 2025, we witnessed the largest single-site raid so far in this second Trump Administration. As you’ve surely heard, on that day 475 workers were arrested when 500 federal, state, and local officers descended on the Hyundai-LG battery plant, turning the site into a “war zone.”Masked agents stormed the facility and arrested about 300 South Korean nationals and 175 others from Guatemala, Colombia, Chile, China, Indonesia, Japan, Mexico, Ecuador, and Venezuela. The workers were then put on buses and sent to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention center. This was the latest example of a systematic federal immigration enforcement strategy that is terrorizing immigrant communities.
Workers said agents armed with rifles lined them up against walls, demanded identification, and conducted immigration status checks for over an hour. The operation involved multiple federal agencies—ICE, Border Patrol, FBI, DEA, IRS, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives—alongside the Georgia State Patrol. Gov. Brian Kemp once touted the Hyundai plant as the biggest development project in Georgia, yet readily partnered with enforcement agencies who subjected the very workers who fuel this economic engine to inhumane and violent treatment. Where is the public response from Georgia’s other policymakers and elected officials? We urge you to recognize this is not a time for silence.
This overwhelming show of force terrorized workers across the 2,900-acre site, leaving many in fear for their lives, including a pregnant woman whose life, and that of her unborn child, was at risk. Despite some workers having valid work permits and asylum applications, their family members report that they were detained anyway.
Today, hundreds of families across Georgia are living in fear and uncertainty. These raids create ripple effects far beyond those directly detained. Children are asking why their fathers and mothers haven’t come home. Some families are keeping their children home from school. Working people are making difficult decisions to either stay home or put food on the table because they are afraid to report to job sites. When our immigrant neighbors do not feel safe to fully participate in our communities, we lose important members of our social fabric, businesses lose workers and customers, and our local economies suffer.
In the face of this attack, communities are coming together to defend their neighbors. Migrant Equity Southeast (MESE), along with immigrant rights, labor, and community-based groups are on the ground providing critical support to families impacted by the raids.
We respectfully ask that state and local officials take prompt action:
- Demand the immediate release of detained workers. These individuals deserve due process and the right to return to their loved ones.
- Publicly condemn this raid and the harm inflicted on immigrant communities.
- Sit with impacted families, listen with intention, and uplift their stories.
- Show concrete support for immigrant communities in your jurisdictions.
As we write this letter one week after the Georgia raid, deportation flights have already taken place. More than 300 Korean nationals have been returned overseas, along with Chinese, Japanese, and Indonesian workers. Others remain detained and separated from their families. Across our state and beyond, families are waiting for answers, still hoping for justice, and still fighting for their loved ones’ freedom. We urge every elected official reading this letter to stand with working families and defend the values of dignity and opportunity that define our communities. Stand with us.
Respectfully,
Georgia Organizations
Migrant Equity Southeast
Angkor Resource Center
Asian Americans Advancing Justice – Atlanta
Asian American Advocacy Fund
Atlanta Democratic Socialists of America
Atlanta Chapter, National Lawyers Guild
Caribbean Georgia Votes, Inc.
Coalition De Lideres Latinos
Common Cause Georgia
CAIR-Georgia
Eritrean-American Community Center
Eritrean-American Community Association of Georgia
Filipino Leadership Alumni Network (FLAN)
GALEO Impact Fund
GCYD
Georgia AAPI Hub
Georgia Asylum and Immigration Network
Georgia Muslim Voter Project
GLOW (Grassroots Law & Organizing for Workers)
Gwinnett County Young Democrats
Georgia Budget and Policy Institute
Georgia Latino Alliance for Human Rights (GLAHR)
Indivisible Lumpkin
Laotian American Society of Georgia
Represent GA Action Network
Sur Legal Collaborative
U-Lead Athens
Union of Southern Service Workers
United Campus Workers of Georgia, CWA Local 3821
Women Watch Afrika
The Young Democrats of Georgia
Young Democrats of Bulloch County
The Young Democrats of Georgia Labor Caucus
9to5 Georgia
National Organizations
AAPIs for Civic Empowerment (AAPI FORCE)
Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund
Ahri Center
Asian Law Caucus
Asian Leaders Alliance
Asian Pacific Americans in Higher Education
Austin Region Justice for Our Neighbors
CASA
Centro de los Derechos del Migrante
Common Cause
Economic Policy Institute
Estrella del Paso
Family Action Network Movement
Hamkae Center
HANA Center
Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights
Immigrant Defenders Law Center (ImmDef)
Japanese American Citizens League
Jobs to Move America
Labor Council for Latin American Advancement
9to5 Georgia
Malaya
Miami Valley Immigration Coalition
National Asian American Pacific Islander Mental Health Association (NAAPIMHA)
National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum
National Coalition for Asian Pacific American Community Development (National CAPACD)
NALDEF, Nicaraguan American Legal Defense and Education Fund
National Korean American Service and Education Consortium
National Employment Law Project
National Immigration Project
National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights
OCA-Asian Pacific American Advocates
Ohio Immigrant Alliance
People Power United
Pilipino Workers Center of Southern CaliforniaPoder Latinx
Radical Communicators
Service Employees International Union (SEIU)
Southeast Immigrant Rights Network
Stop AAPI Hate
Tennessee Immigrant & Refugee Rights Coalition
The Social Justice Center
United Parent Leaders Action Network
United We Dream
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