The operation targeted one of Georgia’s largest and most high-profile manufacturing sites. BRYAN COUNTY, Ga. — U.S. immigration authorities on Thursday 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. The Department of Homeland Security said in a statement that agents executed a search warrant “as part of an ongoing criminal investigation into allegations of unlawful employment practices and other serious federal crimes.” It did not say whether anyone was detained or arrested. However, in a X post from ATF Atlanta, the agency shared that it along with several others were at the plant and 450 people were apprehended. Georgia State Patrol troopers blocked roads to the Hyundai site. The Georgia Department of Public Safety confirmed they were dispatched to assist federal authorities. Video posted to social media Thursday showed workers in yellow safety vests lined up as a man wearing a face mask and a tactical vest with the letters HSI, which stands for Homeland Security Investigations, tells them: “We’re Homeland Security. We have a search warrant for the whole site.” “We need construction to cease immediately,” the man says. “We need all work to end on the site right now.” President Donald Trump's administration has undertaken sweeping ICE operations as part of a mass deportation agenda. Immigration officers have raided farms, construction sites, restaurants and auto repair shops. The Pew Research Center, citing preliminary Census Bureau data, says the U.S. labor force lost more than 1.2 million immigrants from January through July. That includes people who are in the country illegally as well as legal residents. In addition to making electric vehicles at the site facing Interstate 16 in Bryan County, Hyundai has also partnered with LG Energy Solution to build the battery plant. It's slated to open sometime next year. The joint venture, HL-GA Battery Company, “is cooperating fully with the appropriate authorities,” the company said in a statement. “To assist their work, we have paused construction.” Operations at Hyundai's EV manufacturing plant weren't interrupted, said plant spokesperson Bianca Johnson. “This did not impact people getting to work,” Johnson said in an email. “Production and normal office hours had already begun for the day” when authorities shut down access. Copyright 2025 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.     

Let's Go Washington, the backers of the 2024 initiatives, is looking for signatures again. OLYMPIA, Wash. — Let's Go Washington is back in the initiative game. The organization, founded by Brian Heywood, sponsored several initiatives in 2024 changing state law. Heywood announced Monday signatures are being gathered to submit two initiatives to the 2026 state Legislature or potentially voters. The initiatives relate to parental rights and trans youth athletes. Heywood's organization achieved significant victories last year when voters supported initiatives restricting natural gas use and overturning state laws limiting police pursuits. The state Legislature also passed Let's Go Washington-backed measures banning income taxes and guaranteeing parental rights to access school records. The success came after Heywood invested more than $5 million of his own money into seven initiatives. "Someone has to stand up and fight back. And what I think I've done is given the voice. I've given voice to 1.2 million people who signed at least one of our initiatives," Heywood said. However, the organization faced a setback earlier this year when Gov. Bob Ferguson signed legislation overhauling the "parents bill of rights" initiative.  "It stripped all the parts about parental notification or parental access to information," Heywood said. In response, Let's Go Washington is now gathering signatures for two new campaigns. The first seeks to overturn Ferguson's recent law, restoring their original parental rights initiative. The second would require physicians to assign genders to youth athletes during physicals, prohibiting those considered males from competing against females. "Allowing biological males to compete in girls sports is a blatant, a flagrant violation of Title IX, I would argue, and also extremely unfair to girls who've worked really hard to get in a position to be top athletes," Heywood said. Despite failing to pass initiatives targeting the state's climate law, long-term care savings program, and capital gains tax in 2024, Heywood remains optimistic about his organization's impact.  "Four out of seven, I'm pretty, pretty happy with what we did, and we're not done," he said. If the organization can collect enough signatures by the end of the year, the issues would be submitted to the state Legislature. Lawmakers could either pass the initiatives or let voters decide in November 2026.