Last week’s unprecedented immigration raid on southeastern Georgia’s Hyundai Metaplant campus resonated with force in South Korea, homeland to the automaker and to the bulk of the 475 workers arrested.
But not all the people detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement have Korean ties. At least 23 of them are men from Mexico, according to the Mexican consulate in Atlanta.
Consulate staff met with many of the men after they had been transferred to the Folkston ICE Processing Center, a South Georgia facility on the cusp of becoming the nation’s largest immigrant detention site.
“People were in shock,” said Rafael Laveaga, consul general of Mexico in Atlanta. They were “working normally” when law enforcement swept in.
Laveaga added that the men were construction workers, employed by a range of subcontractors building the facility — not by Hyundai. Some had been living in the U.S. for many years and had families in Georgia.
“These were people who dedicated themselves to construction, but they weren’t just building a physical building. They were building an economy, a family, a community. They’re part of the community here in Georgia. And now, unfortunately, these raids have interrupted that building process,” Laveaga said.
Most of the workers interviewed by the consulate indicated they didn’t want to fight their deportation cases and will instead seek voluntary departure.
If granted by an immigration judge, voluntary departure allows removable immigrants to leave at their own expense within a designated time frame.
Departing the U.S. in this manner shields immigrants from the harsh penalties that come with being formally deported by the U.S. government, which includes barring them from reentry for up to 10 years. Individuals who depart voluntarily may also apply for visas to return to the U.S. legally.
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
Those who have opted to challenge their removal, Laveaga said, are the workers with deeper ties to Georgia.
“If someone has been here for several years, if they’re married to a U.S. citizen or if they have U.S. citizen children, the most probable thing is that they will want to fight their cases,” Laveaga said.
The consul general said the Mexican workers told him that the law enforcement operation at the Hyundai Metaplant campus stretched well into the night. Workers reported no improper use of force.
“The operation was not carried out with violence,” Laveaga said. “For us, it’s very important to ask directly if someone felt vulnerable, if they were hit or hurt. That wasn’t the case,” at the Hyundai plant, which is near Savannah.
Laveaga added that he expects the scale of the raid and the amount of attention it has generated to further fuel a climate of fear among immigrant populations.
“The immigrant community is afraid,” he said. “These events, when they become mediatized, they generate fear. And fear is our families’ worst enemy.”
The Hyundai-LG Battery construction site raid was the “cherry on top of a disgusting sundae” for Savannah’s Hispanic community, said Daniela Rodriguez with the group Migrant Equity Southeast.
Laborers from Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico and Venezuela were among the 475 detainees last week, and the arrests come on the heels of an immigration dragnet run by ICE and the Chatham County Police Department earlier in the summer.
That initiative focused on Savannah-area neighborhoods home to majority-Hispanic mobile home parks. Rodriguez said the current climate is one of terror, uncertainty and heartbrokenness.
“People who came to chase the American dream are … (being) caught like animals,” Rodriguez said.
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
Even those with legal residency status feel intimidated, she said. Rodriguez pointed to telephone calls she received last week from confused workers who ran away from the site during the raid.
“They were like: ‘OK, I see people running. Should I run? Should I stay here?,’” she said. “Their work status didn’t matter. They just panicked.”
Savannah is home to Georgia’s second-largest Hispanic population behind metro Atlanta. Hispanic Americans make up 3.5% of voters in Chatham County and the population has doubled since 2008.
Surrounding counties, including the Hyundai factory’s home of Bryan, also count many Hispanics among their residents. Many are migrants who work in agriculture, harvesting South Georgia agricultural staples such as onions, blueberries, cotton and pine straw.
— Reporter Adam Van Brimmer contributed to this story.
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