Since a massive immigration attack on a Hyundai production facilities in almost 500 workers in Southeast -Georgia, the phones of their organization have rang the doorbell continuously.
“We have individuals every day who return calls, but the list does not end,” said Harrison. It operates an apolitical non-profit organization called Grow Initiative, which combines families with low-income and equally immigrants with food, living space and educational resources.
Since the raid, Harrison said: “Families are experiencing a new measure of crises.”
A majority of the 475 people who were detained at the workplace – the US officials have been known as the largest for two decades – were Korean and returned to South Korea. However, lawyers and social workers say that many of the non -Korean immigrants who are trapped in the procedure remain in the legal float or are otherwise not taken into account.
When the attack began on the morning of September 4, the employees almost immediately started to designate migrant Equity Southeast, a local non -profit organization that combines immigrants with legal and financial resources. The small organization of approximately 15 employees who have exposed calls to people from Mexico, Guatemala, Colombia, Chile, Ecuador and Venezuela, said spokesman Vanessa Contreras.
During the day, people described federal agents who took mobile phones from the employees and provided in the long term, said Contreras. Some workers hid for hours in order to avoid recording in air channels or remote areas of the extensive property. The Ministry of Justice said some hid in a nearby sewage pond.
People outside the location desperately called the organization after the whereabouts of relatives who worked in the plant and were suddenly unreachable.
Like many of the Koreans who worked in the work, represented lawyers and lawyers who represented the non -Korean workers who were involved in the RAID that some who were imprisoned had legal approval for working in the United States.
Neither the Department of Homeland Security nor the immigration and customs authority answered e -mail inquiries for a comment on Friday. It is not clear how many people are detained during the raid.
The lawyer Charles Kuck, based in Atlanta, who represents both Korean and non -Korean workers, said that two of his customers were legally worked as part of the postponed campaign for the arrival of childhood, which was founded by former President Barack Obama. One was released and should never have been arrested, “he said, while the other was still stated because he was recently accused of being driven under the influence.
Another of Kuck's customer was in the process of looking for asylum, he said and had the same documents and the same job as her husband, who was not arrested.
Some even had valid Georgia driver licenses that are not available to people in the country illegally, said Rosario Palacios, who supported Migrant Equity Southeast. Some families who called the organization were left behind without access to transport because the person who was arrested was the only one who could drive.
“It is difficult to say how they chose who they would publish and who they would take custody,” said Palacios, adding that some who were arrested had no extraterrestrial identification number and were still not taken into account.
Kuck said that the robbery is an indication of how far the procedure of the administration of President Donald Trump, even though they are aimed at criminals.
“The redefinition of the word” criminal “to close everyone who is not a citizen, and even some who is it is the problem here,” said Kuck.
Many of the families who called Harrison's initiative said that their imprisoned relatives were the only nutrients in the household and desperately left them according to the basics such as baby formula and food.
The financial impact of the attack on the construction site for a battery factory, which is operated by the HL-GA Battery Co., was reinforced by the fact that another massive employer in the region-international Paper Co.
Growth initiative does not check the immigration status, said Harrison, but almost all families who turned to them said that their detained relatives had legal approval in the United States, and many are confused about why their relatives were primarily taken into custody.
“The worst calls are those where they cry and scream children:” Where is my mother? “, Said Harrison.
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Riddle is a member of the Corps for the “Associated Press/Report” initiative for America Statehouse News. The report for America is a non -profit National Service program that reports journalists in local news editorial offices on hidden topics.
