One year ago today, Alfredo Fajardo and hundreds of other workers lived through a harrowing experience when officers of the U.S. Immigration and Customs and Enforcement (ICE) and other local and federal agencies descended upon the Hyundai Metaplant in Ellabell, Georgia to conduct one of the largest worksite immigration raids in history. Today, Alfredo filed a claim under the Federal Tort Claims Act for the injuries that ICE officers inflicted upon him during the raid.
On September 4, 2025, immigration officers kicked down the door to Alfredo’s workspace while yelling in English, a language Alfredo hardly understands. The encounter was immediately violent. According to Alfredo, a masked officer pointed a long weapon at him, choked him, and turned him face down on the floor. “F**king Latinos” or something to that effect was all he could understand. Alfredo felt his heart racing like never before. He feared for his life.
The officer then pressed down hard on Alfredo’s lower back with such force that Alfredo lost control of his bladder, and cuffed his hands behind his back with plastic handcuffs so tight that Alfredo felt his hands immediately start to swell.
Despite never seeing a warrant of any kind, and despite showing officers the documents authorizing him to work in the U.S., Alfredo was detained, shackled with hot metal chains around his hands, stomach, and feet, and forced to board a bus without knowing its destination. He was taken alongside hundreds of his co-workers to Georgia’s Folkston ICE detention center, where for the next 11 days he was denied a phone call. When he was eventually allowed to make a call, his family was relieved to learn he was still alive. They thought he had been killed during the raid.
Alfredo was detained for the next seven months at Folkston and one more at a Louisiana detention center. While detained, Alfredo lacked adequate access to medicine and ate expired, low-quality food, which caused his health to deteriorate significantly. He was denied proper medical attention. Alfredo was deported to Colombia eight months after the raid.
This traumatizing experience cost Alfredo not only his job and the life he had built in the United States, but also time with his family, his health, and his ability to sleep.
But Alfredo is deciding to push beyond the pain and the fear to demand justice. No human being should be treated like he was, no matter their immigration status. Today, on the anniversary of the raid that changed his life, he is speaking out and fighting back. This day will no longer just be about injustice, but about his resilience and his strength.
Centro de los Derechos del Migrante is proud to support him in his fight. And we are grateful to work alongside Advancing Justice-Atlanta in this claim, and with Migrant Equity Southeast (MESE) in the continued response to a raid that left entire communities terrified and grieving.
As Centro de los Derechos del Migrante celebrates its 21st anniversary this coming week, we want to thank you for your continued support over the years. It is because of your commitment that we can stand alongside and support workers like Alfredo in their fight for justice.
Thank you for supporting us. And thank you for supporting Alfredo.