Local leaders and immigrant activists spoke out Monday against the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement raid on a Hyundai plant in rural Georgia.

U.S. immigration authorities, on Sept. 4, raided the sprawling site where Hyundai manufactures electric vehicles in southeast Georgia, conducting a search that shut down construction on an adjacent factory being built to produce EV batteries.

The operation targeted one of Georgia’s largest and most high-profile manufacturing sites, touted by the governor and other officials as the largest economic development project in the state’s history. Hyundai Motor Group began manufacturing EVs a year ago at the $7.6 billion plant, which employs about 1,200 people.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesman Lindsay Williams confirmed that federal authorities were conducting an enforcement operation at the 3,000-acre (1,214-hectare) site west of Savannah. He said agents were focused on the construction site for the battery plant.

"Many of these people had legal work permits. Yet they still felt intimidated, mistreated and abused by ICE. Make no mistake, we cannot call ourselves a civilized society if the very people who build our homes, our cars and our futures are treated this way," said Daniela Rodriguez, executive director of Migrant Equity Southeast.