EL PASO, Texas (Border Report) – Twenty-six undocumented Mexican workers were taken into custody by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents during a high-profile raid at an automotive plant in Georgia.
The Mexican consulate in Atlanta said 23 were being held at the ICE detention center in Folkston, Ga., and three more at the Stewart detention center in Lumpkin.
Most have signed voluntary departure documents and will be repatriated to Mexico within days.
“This Consulate General remains in communication with those workers and their families to provide the appropriate assistance,” the consulate said in a statement, adding its staff also is in touch with U.S. federal officials regarding the status of the detainees.
The Mexican workers were among hundreds of individuals detained on September 4 at the Hyundai battery plant in Ellabell. Most of those detained are South Korean nationals whose attorney told The Associated Press on Monday were doing work authorized under a B-1 business visitor visa.
The government of South Korea is working with U.S. federal officials to safely return its citizens on a charter flight.
The Mexican government, meantime, is vowing to provide protection services to its detainees.
“We have been informed that 23 Mexicans were detained in the latest raid in Georgia, in that automotive plant. Thirteen asked for help from our consulate, 10 did not,” Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said on Monday.
She instructed Mexico’s consuls in the U.S. to be on the lookout for further ICE raids elsewhere in the United States, travel and assist the detainees. She said she would provide whatever additional budget consuls need to provide protection services.
Some of that assistance may include referrals to law firms or nonprofit groups authorized to provide immigration advice. Consular staff also is responsible for ensuring the detainees’ civil and human rights are respected.
“Everyone has a right to ask for that support. When there are raids, our consulates have been instructed to get in contact with U.S. authorities, ICE, which is making these unjust raids,” Sheinbaum said.
Civil rights organizations and immigration activists in the U.S. worry upcoming immigration enforcement actions in Chicago and possibly other major American cities will keep Latino residents from attending planned Hispanic Heritage events.
The start of this monthlong celebration of Hispanic culture and heritage is Sept. 15, which coincides with Mexico’s “grito” ceremony reminiscent of that nation’s call to Independence from Spain in 1810. It goes on a couple of days past Indigenous People’s Day, which this year falls on Oct. 13.