More than 300 South Korean workers, detained during last year’s immigration raid at a Hyundai plant in Georgia, are taking legal action against the United States government, according to a CNN report citing a lawyer representing those affected.
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As the operation marks its one-year anniversary, those affected have begun filing administrative claims — a mandatory step before a federal lawsuit — with nine federal agencies, including the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Customs and Border Protection (CBP), the FBI, and the Departments of Justice and Labor. All claims are expected to be submitted before the end of the year.
The ICE operation at the electric battery manufacturing plant in the city of Ellabell on September 4, 2025, was the largest raid immigration authorities had conducted in the United States at a single location — according to Steven Schrank, head of Homeland Security Investigations in Atlanta — and threatened to create a diplomatic conflict with South Korea, an important trading partner.
About 500 federal, state, and local agents stormed the facilities and detained 475 workers, of whom 300 were South Korean. The rest of the detainees were mostly Hispanic. Many of them had proper documentation, but the agents handcuffed and detained them. They were forced to sign documents they did not understand, according to their statements, and were locked up in ICE detention centers.
Videos and photographs of the incident showed workers chained at the wrists, waist, and ankles. Workers’ phones were confiscated, and some were unable to notify their families in their home countries until days after they were released.
“Even after we were detained, we didn’t know why we had been taken or what crime we had committed. No one knew anything. We were all just bewildered,” a worker told CNN. “If at least they had explained things to us as they proceeded, maybe I would have understood a little,” he added.
The South Korean government then conveyed its “concern and regret” to Washington, sent diplomats to Georgia, and warned that the rights of Korean citizens investing in U.S. projects must not be violated.
The DHS justified at the time that some had entered illegally, others had overstayed their visas, and others had visa exemptions that prohibited them from working. The two governments held negotiations and agreed on the release of the detained South Koreans and the dispatch of a charter flight for their repatriation. Several of them returned months later to their jobs at the factory.
In the first complaint filed, the plaintiff alleges that he was illegally detained and “subjected to degrading living conditions” while held at an ICE center for seven days, adding that the raid resulted in “the intentional infliction of emotional distress, humiliation… and lasting psychological trauma.”
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“Damn Latinos”
On the one-year anniversary of the mass raid, one of the Hispanic workers, Colombian Alfredo Fajardo Melgarejo, has filed an administrative claim seeking financial compensation for the violent and illegal conduct of ICE agents during the raid. Fajardo alleges that the agents used excessive force and military-style tactics to detain him without cause, terrorizing him during the process. He states that armed ICE agents kicked down the door of his workplace while shouting at him in English, a language he barely understands. They strangled him, violently wrestled him, and humiliated him by pointing a weapon at him before arresting him, despite the fact that he did not resist or attempt to flee.
During the assault, the ICE agent made comments about “damn Latinos” and pressed Fajardo’s body so hard that he involuntarily urinated himself, according to a statement released by the Migrant Rights Center and Asian Americans Advancing Justice-Atlanta, who represent him. The claim is administrative, not a lawsuit, but could lead to litigation in a federal court if not resolved.
According to the lawyers, although Fajardo showed the agents documentation of his immigration status and valid work permit, they handcuffed him and transported him by bus, along with other coworkers, to the ICE Processing Center in Folkston, Georgia, where he was detained for more than seven months.
He was later transferred to the Jackson Parish Correctional Center in Louisiana, where he was held for another month until he was deported in May 2026. Fajardo claims he was denied phone calls during the first eleven days of his detention, leading his family to believe he had died. He also reports having suffered medical neglect while detained.
In response to EL PAÍS’s request to comment on the legal initiative, the DHS responded with a statement justifying the raid: “The Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) division of ICE, in coordination with our law enforcement partners, executed a search warrant as part of an ongoing criminal investigation into alleged illegal labor practices and other serious federal crimes.
This operation underscores our commitment to protecting jobs for Georgia residents, ensuring fair conditions for law-abiding businesses, safeguarding the integrity of our economy, and protecting workers from exploitation.”
LG Energy Solution is co-owner along with Hyundai Motor Group of the battery plant where the raid took place and was not yet operational at the time of the ICE operation. It is part of a Hyundai mega complex that is one of the largest projects developed in the State of Georgia.
