On Friday, September 4, community members gathered to reflect and hold space for 475 workers and their families whose lives were upended by ICE’s raid of the Hyundai Meta plant in Ellabell one year ago in the largest immigration workplace raid in US history.

Grounded by a steady drumbeat played by drummers, representatives of Migrant Equity Southeast, Demo Lab South, Asian Americans Advancing Justice-Atlanta, Centro de Derechos del Migrante, and NAKASEC spoke about the lasting impacts of the raid and called for ICE to be held accountable. The organizations expressed their continuing support and solidarity with the workers who were arrested and their families, from whom many of the workers were separated during their unjust detention by ICE. CDM and Advancing Justice-Atlanta announced that they recently filed a complaint under the Federal Tort Claims Act on behalf of one of the workers, Alfredo Fajardo, to seek justice for his wrongful arrest and mistreatment by ICE. We will continue to hold the government accountable for its actions during the raid and advocate for ICE to be abolished.