Neither raids by Immigration and Customs Enforcement nor citizen opposition to the way families are being broken up and the detainees treated have been isolated to America’s large metropolitan areas in 2025.
The big raid by ICE and other federal and state agencies at the LG Energy Solution battery factory construction site adjacent to Hyundai Motorgroup Metaplant America – which made national news Sept. 4 – occurred about 30 miles from downtown Statesboro. But that wasn’t the only time ICE has touched the Statesboro area this year. Smaller enforcement actions, including those in which immigrants have been followed in vehicles and stopped and detained, have occurred within Bulloch County.
Meanwhile, the Statesboro Migrant Support Group, a volunteer organization founded informally in January, provides assistance to detained or at-risk immigrants and their families in various ways.
The group meets periodically, in rotation at several different churches. The most recent such meeting was held on Saturday evening, Oct. 4. At that point the latest news before the group concerned ICE actions in the area on Thursday, Oct. 2, in which seven or eight immigrants suspected of being incompletely documented or to have other violations were detained by ICE.
Most specifically, the group heard from witnesses to an ICE action that occurred at Eagle Trace Mobile Home Park that morning. Two Hispanic men in their mid-20s were removed from the mobile home of a woman who was reportedly the sister of one of the men and the girlfriend of the other.
Some support group members obtained a brief cellphone video, shared from phone to phone, taken by the woman inside the home. Through the closed door, she had asked if they had a warrant and who they were multiple times, with no definite answer heard on the recording, but “Policia!” yelled before the door burst open, and men were glimpsed entering, mostly their midsections and not faces visible in the video, in uniforms that were not those of local police agencies.
However, one or more Bulloch County Sheriff’s Office deputies did respond to assist with what a BSCO lead deputy later called a “traffic stop,” although the men ICE eventually detained were apparently inside the home when the agents arrived. One man had been in a vehicle followed from a gas station, someone at the meeting said.
Meanwhile, a local educator who is multilingual and often serves as an interpreter had been called by the woman in the home, or by someone on her behalf, and drove there.
The educator, who spoke to Migrant Support Group members at their meeting, said ICE had the home surrounded when she arrived and she had heard “a girl” screaming. She said she there were concerns about children in the family.
After getting out of her vehicle and approaching the home, the educator asked a deputy if the people from the home had an interpreter, and he checked and told her they did. But when she asked further questions, including, “Are they free to go?” the deputy, whom she identified as working with a K-9 unit, said something like, “That’s enough!” pushed her aside and told her she was being arrested for obstruction and handcuffed her, she said.
The educator and would-be volunteer translator was taken to the Bulloch County Jail that morning, where Migrant Support Group members tried to visit her, some hearing at first that she was on an “ICE hold.” But the educator has a “green card,” meaning lawful permanent residency status, and is married to a U.S. citizen.
A local attorney went to the jail to represent her, and the educator was released later that morning on her own recognizance, in other words with a “zero dollar” bond. The charge of misdemeanor obstruction of law enforcement officers was written on a traffic citation form but with the notation “not driving” and filed in Bulloch County State Court, where a November court date is listed.
“I was never there to prevent anyone from being taken – that is not my place – but to just have them treated fairly, like human beings,” she told the Migrant Support Group.
‘ICE Watchers’
An “ICE Watchers” team is one of several teams of volunteers with different assignments set up within the Support Group, and the ICE Watchers in particular have received some training. But after the Oct. 2 incident, some leading volunteers say they want further feedback from the Sheriff’s Office about where the lines are drawn.
Adrienne Cohen, one of the Statesboro Migrant Support Group co-chairs, said two or three of the leaders would be willing to sit down and ask of the sheriff or lead deputies, “OK, what are the rules? What can we do? What can’t we do? We’re trying to be respectful, but we don’t know, and we just want to be able to do this in a way that’s going to be safe and not get us in trouble.”
ICE Watchers are “not protestors” and “not there to be problematic,” Cohen said. “The ICE Watchers are there to record and document. For one thing, there are family members that will then know that their people have been taken. For another thing, we’ve got documentation, particularly livestreams about (what) ICE is doing.”
She and another volunteer said they had received one pointer, somewhat indirectly, from the Sheriff’s Office, but that it basically amounted to advice not to talk to deputies at the scene.
“This is really hearsay, but it’s some advice that at as long as we do not talk to people, we can go to these raids and we can be present and we can take pictures, but we should not talk to the officers,” said Martha Hughes, who isn’t an ICE Watcher but is a leading volunteer with the group’s Family and Household Support Team.
She and other Migrant Support Group volunteers reported that another new twist they found alarming occurred Friday, Oct. 10. A person who had apparently insecure immigration status but whose family had a Statesboro address reported to a probation officer, a regular appointment on a past, apparently misdemeanor charge, and was detained by or for ICE, according to the volunteers.
“It’s so shocking that that would happen when he’s trying to do what’s legally right,” Hughes said.
Family & Household Support
The detained person reportedly leaves behind a spouse, an 8-month-old baby and a mother-in-law. So now, the Family and Household Support Team has provided transportation for the family, which otherwise has none, to places such as the Food Bank, and is discussing ways that the group can help with rent, utilities and food with the Financial, or Fund Raising, Team.
Reaching beyond Bulloch to some neighboring counties, the group has already provided this kind of support to some households with one or both wage-earners suddenly out of the picture. A mother and father often have differing immigrations statuses, and their children if born in the United States are still citizens, although President Donald Trump and his administration are trying to end birthright citizenship.
Incidentally, after the Sept. 4 raid at the Hyundai and LG Energy mega-site resulted in the reported detention of 475 non-U.S.-citizens, more than 300 of whom were South Koreans, the media attention subsided with the return of the Koreans to Korea on a chartered flight.
But that apparently left more than 150 other migrants, including people originally from Mexico and some Central American countries, in detention. A few had lived in this area for many years and left behind children who are citizens, as well as other family members.
Many were sent at first to the Folkston ICE Processing Center, between the southeastern corner of Georgia and the Okefenokee Swamp. The other frequent Georgia destination is Stewart Detention Center, a private prison at Lumpkin west of Americus.
The Statesboro support group has also directed some money to detainees held at Folkston to buy supplemental food and long-sleeved shirts for colder weather.
Accompaniment Team
Some support donations have also been used by families for attorneys’ fees. Statesboro Migrant Support Group does not have a legal team. But they do have an Accompaniment Team, made up of volunteers who provide transportation and accompany people to court. So far, this usually isn’t to actual immigration court, but more often to local courts for misdemeanor or traffic citation offenses.
Sometimes, it’s the person who is required to be in court who doesn’t have a driver’s license, and sometimes the family member who provided transportation for others has been detained or is now afraid to drive, Hughes explained. “Being bilingual is not necessary but is preferred” for accompaniment volunteers, stated the latest Statesboro Migrant Support Group email update.
Outreach & Advocacy
The group also fields outreach and advocacy teams. The outreach effort involves reaching out to people who may need assistance as well as to potential volunteers. The group’s published email address is statesboromigrants@gmail.com.