Human Impact Project

More than 300 South Korean workers among 475 people detained in a September 4, 2025 immigration raid at the Hyundai-LG battery plant in Ellabell, Georgia have begun filing administrative claims against nine federal agencies, the first step toward a federal lawsuit. The claims note that the search warrant used to enter the plant named only four targets, who court records describe as Hispanic, not Korean. Workers, including a lead organizer identified only as Kim, allege they were shackled, denied interpreters, pressured to sign documents they could not read, and held for about a week in overcrowded, cold cells with limited food and sanitation at a detention facility in Folkston, Georgia. One worker, Ryu, said he lost nearly 10 pounds in custody, while another, Choi, said he has since returned to work at the same plant but wants a government apology; Hyundai and LG have publicly distanced themselves from the litigation.

M., who prefers to use only her first initial, was forcibly separated from her two-year-old U.S.-citizen child during a raid at the Nutrition Bar Confectioners factory. Despite showing agents her work permit, Social Security documentation, and evidence of a pending asylum appeal, she was sent to a detention facility in Texas and then deported to Guatemala. She is now a plaintiff in a lawsuit against the ICE and CBP agents involved in the raid.

Eddie, a worker at the Nutrition Bar Confectioners factory who had lived in the U.S. for twenty years and held a work permit, was arrested during a federal raid and deported to Guatemala within 72 hours. His wife is now struggling to care for their two boys alone while working overtime and coping with depression over the sudden separation. He is a plaintiff in a lawsuit seeking to allow him to return to the U.S. and reunite with his family.

Pedro Rojas, a U.S. citizen born in Puerto Rico, was working at the Nutrition Bar Confectioners factory in Cato, New York, when armed federal agents raided the site on Sept. 4, 2025. After identifying himself as a citizen, he was still required to show identification and provide contact information before being allowed to leave. Newly released body camera footage, cited in a lawsuit filed Sept. 10, 2026 alleging investigators overstepped their search warrants, shows the hours-long raid in which 57 people were arrested and employees were separated into groups based on citizenship status. Rojas remains a plaintiff in the suit, which alleges the raid targeted Latino workers based on ethnicity.

On September 4, 2025, roughly 60 armed and masked federal agents from Homeland Security Investigations, ICE, CBP and local sheriff's offices raided the Nutrition Bar Confectioners plant in Cato, New York, a town of 2,500 people east of Syracuse. Officers broke down a locked bathroom door on female employees, herded over 100 workers into a break room, and separated them by citizenship status without individualized suspicion, questioning pregnant employees and parents worried about children waiting at home. Investigators also interviewed the plant's general manager about hiring practices and potential fraudulent documents, while officers searched offices, storage rooms and hallways for anyone in hiding and debated which company files to seize. At least 57 workers were arrested, more than 20 were separated from their children, and some were denied access to attorneys or family before being sent to out-of-state detention facilities. Pedro Rojas, a U.S. citizen who was seized and interrogated, said agents targeted him and his coworkers because they are Latino. Only five of those arrested faced criminal charges, the most serious being unlawful reentry, and two plaintiffs were deported, though one has since been allowed to reenter the country. The NYCLU and the Worker Justice Center of New York filed a class action lawsuit against DHS alleging officers exceeded their search warrants and violated workers' Fourth Amendment rights, and body camera footage reviewed by the Associated Press as part of that lawsuit has now become public.

A 24-year-old Guatemalan man who became a legal U.S. resident two years earlier was briefly detained, photographed, and released during a raid by federal agents, including Customs and Border Protection and Homeland Security Investigations, at Nutrition Bar Confectioners in Cato, New York. His partner, who lacks legal status, was among dozens of workers taken away by agents before he could speak to her, and he did not know where she had been detained. Plant owner Lenny Schmidt said all employees had been vetted and had legal documentation, called the raid "terrifying," and said he would have cooperated if notified beforehand. Cayuga County Sheriff Brian Schenck said deputies assisted HSI in executing a search warrant tied to an ongoing criminal investigation, prompting state Sen. Rachel May to question why workers were detained.

ICE agents, assisted by Mahoning Township Police, conducted a raid at a Geisinger construction project on September 2, with local police saying 10 people were detained rather than the 40 initially rumored. Advocacy groups, including the Pennsylvania Immigration Coalition and Centre County Rapid Response Network, later said more than 40 construction workers from countries including Nicaragua, El Salvador and Honduras were detained that day, with additional arrests occurring on September 8. An ICE spokesperson said those arrested in Danville face felony charges of illegal reentry after prior removal by a DOJ immigration judge.

Maribel Lopez, a Guatemalan mother of three who fled years of abuse in her home country, was detained in early September 2025 when federal agents raided the nutrition-bar factory where she worked in Central New York. Although her pending asylum appeal should have protected her from removal, she was deported to Guatemala within four days of the raid. Her 2-year-old son, Jorge, remained in the U.S. in the care of his two older siblings, who are barely adults themselves. Her case was profiled by The New York Times as part of a growing pattern of rapid deportations that bypass pending legal claims.

Two workers assisting with wildfire firefighting in Washington state's Olympic National Forest were detained by Border Patrol agents on charges of unauthorized entry and reentry. One of the detainees had a pending U-visa application and a previous removal order. The detentions occurred while the workers were engaged in firefighting efforts on the Bear Gulch fire, an approximately 9,000-acre wildfire. Democratic lawmakers, including Senator Patty Murray and Representative Emily Randall, made statements regarding the operation. Randall was subsequently denied entry to the ICE facility where the men were being held.

Francisco Hernandez-Corona, an undocumented immigrant who had lived in the U.S. for most of his life, self-deported to Mexico. He was married to a U.S. citizen, but a permanent bar from a childhood unauthorized entry prevented him from adjusting his status while in the country, leaving him with no legal pathway to remain.

Balbino Mayora, an Arizona resident of nearly 25 years and business owner, was arrested by Phoenix police over vehicle registration issues. After his court hearing on August 27, ICE agents apprehended him outside the courthouse and he was transferred to the Eloy Detention Center. Mayora, who entered the US legally on a visa but overstayed, is now in removal proceedings while his family fights for his release.

A video captured ICE agents detaining several immigrant workers in Danbury, Connecticut on Monday, August 24, showing an agent kneeling on a man lying face-down on the street with his hands behind his back while pointing an object toward his head. The person who filmed the video, who asked to remain anonymous, told N+ Univision that one of those detained was his friend, whom he had met at a shelter, describing him as "super amable" and someone who always greeted people warmly. The witness said he and his friend were preparing to leave for work with a group of other workers when immigration agents arrived and began detaining people without identifying themselves.

Gustavo was detained by ICE on August 24, 2025, while working at Bubble Hand Car Wash in Torrance. After being held for 7 months, he was granted bond at $17,500. His sister Rosa organized a GoFundMe to raise funds for his legal expenses, noting that Gustavo is elderly with medical conditions including high blood pressure, diabetes, and cirrhosis.

HSI and ICE agents chased a family in Indio, California, causing a couple to crash their vehicle. Agents removed the man from the scene in their vehicles. The children were left at the scene. An ambulance arrived for the mother and children.

ICE arrests continue to increase across the Western Pennsylvania region, including areas like Monroeville and Ambridge. Federal immigration authorities are receiving assistance from local police in conducting these enforcement operations. The article references an incident on Tuesday involving more than two dozen workers arrested at a construction site at Mount Nittany.

ICE Boston, in coordination with the FBI, U.S. Marshals Service, DEA, and ATF, apprehended 65 people during a four-day enforcement operation from August 12-15, 2025, targeting transnational organized crime, gangs, and offenders with serious criminal histories across Connecticut. The operation, named Operation Broken Trust, included arrests at courthouses in Stamford, Norwalk, and Danbury, as well as street arrests. According to ICE, 29 of the 65 people arrested had been convicted or charged with crimes including kidnapping, assault, drug offenses, weapons violations, and sex crimes. The operation was conducted in response to Connecticut's Trust Act, which was expanded in May 2025 to further limit state and local law enforcement cooperation with ICE, including honoring detainer requests. Immigration advocates protested the operation and criticized ICE's tactics, including arrests at courthouses and use of force against protesters.

Miguel Alvarado-Lopez, a worker at Moonshot Tavern in Portland, was apprehended by immigration enforcement agents on January 24 while sitting in his car at a gas station in Northeast Portland. He was transferred to the Northwest ICE Processing Center in Tacoma, Washington, then to Arizona, and as of the report was awaiting deportation to Guatemala where his wife and son reside.

Mario, a father of three who had worked non-stop for 33 years since immigrating from Mexico, was arrested during ICE raids at the carwash in Santa Ana where he worked on August 19, 2025. He spent six nights sleeping on the floor of a holding cell he called the "ice box" and two months at Adelanto detention center, where he contracted a contagion, possibly flu or COVID. He was released on October 24 after his lawyers filed a habeas corpus petition, but remains unable to work while awaiting a final deportation hearing, and his wife Alejandra said he came home severely traumatized, refusing to leave the house and barely eating. This summer, Mario spoke publicly at a news conference at Inglewood's Crenshaw Imperial Car Wash—since closed after a federal raid—describing being held for a week without a blanket, a toothbrush, or basic medical care for an injured man detained beside him; advocacy group CLEAN Carwash Worker Center says at least 373 car wash workers have been detained in more than 100 raids across Southern California since the crackdown began.

In August 2025, ICE confirmed the arrests of 24 construction workers in Centre County, Pennsylvania, who were on their way to a construction site at Mount Nittany Medical Center's patient tower project. On August 19, around 7 a.m., ICE agents pulled over a van of workers on Interstate 99 near Bellefonte; other workers from the same site were stopped near the Milesburg exit on Highway 220 about an hour later. Advocates said the 24 to 26 men detained were from Mexico, Guatemala, Nicaragua, El Salvador and Honduras, and described them as fathers, sons and brothers whose arrests disrupted their families and the local workforce. A foreman driving several workers said he was pulled over by two unmarked vehicles and that many detained had valid identification and work permits. The men were reportedly taken to Pike County Correctional Facility, Clinton County Correctional Facility, and Moshannon Valley Processing Center, with advocates and a state lawmaker saying they struggled to obtain information about detainees' whereabouts and alleging some may have been misled or coerced into signing self-deportation orders. The raid preceded a similar operation near Geisinger Medical Center in Danville, and advocates described both as part of a pattern of immigration enforcement near hospitals in central Pennsylvania.

On August 16, 2025, ICE conducted enforcement operations at a Home Depot and car wash in Anaheim, detaining at least five people despite a federal court order barring sweeps based on race, language or employment type. At the Euclid Car Wash, agents deployed tear gas against a crowd of bystanders and detained Isaac Dominguez, a Black bystander and U.S. citizen who was there to wash his car, in what city officials say was the third such incident at that location since July 3. Anaheim Mayor Ashleigh Aitken has criticized the continued raids as targeting workers based on job, skin color or language, and officials report federal agents have also returned to the same Home Depot on Brookhurst Street at least six times since early June, with enforcement spreading to day laborers in Garden Grove and car wash workers in Santa Ana.