Overview
- Roughly 200 former detainees are preparing legal action against ICE alleging unlawful detention, racial discrimination, excessive force and human rights violations.
- Workers describe phones being confiscated, shackling during transport and days in crowded, unsanitary detention pods with racial taunts from some guards.
- About 180 B-1 business visas have been restored and at least 30 South Korean engineers have returned to the Ellabell site, according to worker representatives and company statements.
- HL-GA Battery says construction has restarted with returning and new staff and the project remains on track to begin production in the first half of next year.
- DHS says the Sept. 4 action was part of an ongoing criminal probe and one of its largest single-site enforcement operations, while a search warrant reviewed by The Independent indicated agents initially sought four arrests at the facility.