On September 4, 2025, agents with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raided the Hyundai Motor Group plant in Ellabell, Georgia, detaining an estimated 475 workers. One of them, Alfredo Fajardo Melgarejo, says he had a valid work permit and tried to show it, but officers detained him anyway. He says armed agents broke through the door of his work area shouting commands in English, a language he barely speaks, then grabbed him by the throat and roughed him up at gunpoint even though he was not resisting or trying to run. He says the force was so intense that he lost control of his bladder.

Fajardo was placed in chains and bused with coworkers to the Folkston ICE Processing Center, where he spent more than seven months in custody. He says he went eleven days without being allowed a single phone call, leaving his family to fear he was dead. He was later moved to a detention facility in Louisiana for another month before being deported, about eight months after he was first detained. Centro de los Derechos del Migrante and Asian Americans Advancing Justice-Atlanta are now representing him in a federal claim against the U.S. government.

"The use of force during the raid was excessive," Fajardo said. "I showed the government that I had my permit, paid my taxes and had everything in order... I would like to see justice served."

No one should be choked, humiliated, and cut off from their family by the federal officers sworn to enforce the law. The government must investigate how ICE used force during this raid, guarantee every detainee timely phone access and proper medical care, and hold officers accountable for their conduct.

Sign the petition to demand accountability for ICE's actions at the Hyundai plant raid — before another worker is treated this way.