Some 23 Mexicans were among the 475 detained in the massive roundup carried out by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) last Thursday at a Hyundai battery plant in the city of Ellabell, Georgia. The detainees have received legal and family assistance, according to the Mexican consulate in Atlanta, which stated that most have agreed to self-deport and will return to Mexico in the coming days.

Over the weekend, details have emerged of the largest raid ever carried out by immigration authorities in the United States, which threatened to create a diplomatic conflict with South Korea, a major trading partner, over the arrest of 300 Korean citizens. South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Yun departed for the United States on Monday to finalize steps for the repatriation of the detainees. Appearing at a legislative hearing before his departure, the minister described the raid as"a very serious matter."

Hispanics with work permits

The rest of those arrested were mostly Hispanic. Relatives of some of them have reported that they had work permits, and that the officers ignored the papers they showed them.

The family of Camila, a 20-year-old Venezuelan woman, says they spent 30 hours without knowing her whereabouts. Unwilling to give her identity for fear of reprisals, her sister stated in an interview with Univisión that Camila didn't want to hide because she had a work permit."She never thought they were going to take her. She never hid, she never ran, she didn't do anything," she stated.

In a video, in which Camila is identified, a young woman can be heard pleading with ICE agents to release the plastic tape they used to tie her hands because they are hurting her. During the transfer, the detainees were handcuffed with chains."There are criminals on the streets who are not being treated like a 20-year-old student and worker," Camila's sister complains. The young woman appears in images that have been released by ICE. The Venezuelan woman was initially held in an immigration detention center in Folkston, but was transferred to the Stewart center, about five hours from Savannah.

Relatives interviewed by CNN also stated that those arrested included people with valid work permits. Luz Dary Suárez, a Colombian migrant, had warned her husband about the massive raid, but he assured her that he would be fine since he had a valid permit to work in the United States. “I have everything in order, I'm in no hurry,” Luz Dary Suárez's husband told her over the phone.

Suárez, who arrived in the country with his partner and two children almost two years ago, said he has a pending asylum application with U.S. immigration authorities. However, according to his husband, who did not want to give his full name, agents refused to take his documents into account before detaining him.

Since then, he has remained in the custody of U.S. immigration authorities, awaiting a review of his case, along with other plant workers who claimed that authorities disregarded their immigration status during the raid.

“They treat us like criminals”

A migrant named Mauricio also told CNN that his wife was detained despite having proper papers.

“They were calm because she and her brother had their documents in order,” he said. According to him, when ICE agents arrived, they quickly ran toward the crowd and “didn’t accept any documents.” “Although they were able to verify them, they were told nothing was valid, that they would all be arrested,” he said.

The deployment of dozens of armed officers, armored vehicles, and a helicopter caused a stampede among the workers, who ran for cover wherever they could. Some spent hours walking through the forest, while others trapped themselves in the air conditioning ducts.

A Hispanic woman who hid in the duct and managed to escape the agents told Telemudo how she spent 12 hours, from 9:30 a.m. to 9:30 p.m., locked in with seven other people. It was difficult to breathe, and they couldn't move to avoid making noise because they could hear the agents moving and the drones flying over the roof."They treat us like thieves," she lamented through tears.

“I spent more than eight hours walking through the forest,” said a Mexican who managed to escape. He explained that another worker accompanying him was even barefoot. “They treated us like terrorists, like criminals,” he said.

Conflict with South Korea

The massive deployment of agents and the mass detention of South Korean workers threatened to create a diplomatic incident with Seoul. On Friday, after learning of the operation, the South Korean government conveyed its"concern and regret" to Washington, dispatched diplomats to Georgia, and warned that the rights of Korean citizens who invest in US projects must not be violated. The two governments held negotiations and agreed to the release of the detained South Koreans and the dispatch of a chartered flight for their repatriation.

“Please respect our Nation's immigration laws,” the president posted on social media on Sunday. “Your investments are welcome, and we encourage you to legally bring your very smart people here… What we ask in return is that you hire and train American workers,” he added.

The battery factory where the raid took place is not yet operational. It is part of a larger Hyundai complex, one of the largest projects developed in the state of Georgia. Few of the permanent employees expected to fill the 8,500 positions have been hired, and most of the current workforce is temporary.

In a statement on Saturday, LG Energy Solution, which co-owns the Ellabell plant with Hyundai, announced the suspension of all business travel to the United States and asked its employees to remain in their accommodations or return to South Korea immediately. The company said its human resources director is heading to the United States to address the issues on-site.