South Carolina Plant Manager Says ICE Raid Left Business Severely Short-Staffed: ‘It’s Dead’

A South Carolina plant manager has sparked extreme reactions online after claiming his business hasn’t recovered since federal agents showed up.

According to Fox Carolina, which interviewed the warehouse manager on June 9, 2026, he was inside the Burnstein von Seelen facility in Abbeville when the raid happened.

The interview clip later resurfaced on X, where it was reshared by the account @SpecialForceWeb. In the heartbreaking video, the manager describes walking into a machine shop that once buzzed with activity and his coworkers, only to find chaos instead.

“I didn’t know what was going on. I heard people screaming,” he said.

The manager says in the video that the staffing hit was steep.

“We went from having over 100 employees… We might have had 24 there today. It’s sad,” the manager said.

He also described a tense moment during the raid, recalling that an ICE agent pointed a gun at him and ordered him to put on handcuffs. He said he asked the agent, “Are you gonna shoot me?”

According to his account, he ran toward the sound of screaming employees and found 50 to 60 armed agents moving through the facility.

The video didn’t just draw sympathy — it set off a genuine fight in the comments.

“Every single one of you saying that illegals shouldn’t be hired have never ran a business where extremely hard work has to be done. Illegals work their [expletive] off,” one user pointed out. “They always show up, never call off, always finish the job. People today just don’t. Unless you pay $25+”

Plenty of others weren’t buying the sympathy angle at all.

One reply read, “You probably voted for Trump, so no sympathies on that point. You also hired people who are here illegally so you’d only have to pay them a pittance. You deserve what happened to you.”

Another commenter wrote, “If you have to break the law to make your business work, you don’t have a business, you have a criminal enterprise.”

A third agreed, “If he decided to hire illegals over citizens, then he deserves to be punished.”

Some framed it as a wage issue more than anything else.

“Well this is what you get when you hire illegal aliens vs those with proper work requirements,” one comment read. “Instead of praying on illegals need for work, pay your workers a livable wage and people will show up…”

Another echoed that by writing, “Well having illegals working for you is against the law and you should be arrested!!! PAY BETTER WAGES and you’ll get employees!!!!!!”

Other reactions went further.

“I have no sympathy for anyone involved in the employment of illegal aliens. How many Americans were unemployed because he made extra money using illegals?” a separate user argued. “The illegals stole jobs from Americans. They should be made to work for Americans out of work as indentured servants.”

Another chimed in with a stronger take and wrote, “If the employees working at your plant are not in this country legally nor are they legally allowed to work here, then ICE is exactly where they ought to be, doing exactly what they ought to do. The employees are criminals. If you knew their status, you are a criminal as well.”