Agents from US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrested 475 employees of the Hyundai Motor-LG Energy Solution joint venture in a raid on the company’s EV battery manufacturing plant near Savannah, Georgia, on Thursday, September 4. Personnel from Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) were also involved.
A video released by ICE shows a helicopter flying overhead, an armored vehicle, a convoy of SUVs, agents in military uniforms with sidearms and automatic weapons, and workers in ankle chains and handcuffs lined up, patted down and herded onto buses.
More than 300 of those detained were from South Korea, where the incident received wide publicity and immediately became a top concern of the government. South Korean President Lee Jae-myung told his officials that “all-out necessary measures should be done to support Korean nationals in this matter and to resolve it as fast as possible.”
South Korea Minister of Foreign Affairs Cho Hyun said, “If necessary, we will visit Washington directly to discuss the matter with the administration,” while the Korean press reported on the poor sanitary conditions at the processing center to which the detainees were sent.
Steven Schrank, chief special agent of HIS in Atlanta, told the news media that “This operation underscores our commitment to protecting jobs for Georgians and Americans, ensuring a level playing field for businesses that comply with the law, safeguarding the integrity of our economy, and protecting workers from exploitation,” adding that “There was a network of subcontractors and subcontractors for the subcontractors there, so the employees worked for a variety of different companies.”
According to Schrank, it was the “largest single-site enforcement operation” conducted to date, part of “a multi-month criminal investigation where we have developed evidence, conducted interviews, gathered documents and presented that evidence to the court in order to obtain judicial search warrants.”
Most of the non-Korean detainees appear to be construction workers from Latin America. All work at the site was halted.
Speaking at the White House, President Trump said “I would say that they were illegal aliens, and ICE was just doing its job.” He also said, “I just heard about that a little while before the news conference.”
That implies that he didn’t know that a massive raid on a flagship South Korean investment was being planned when he met with South Korean President Lee at the White House on August 25.
Believe that if you like, it is impossible to distinguish between duplicity and ignorance in this case, with ignorance of what ICE is doing perhaps being the more alarming possibility.
But some South Koreans are talking about a conspiracy. MBN News, a South Korean TV program sponsored by the Maeil Business Newspaper, declared that “In light of Trump’s statement, growing suspicions arise about the potential ulterior motives behind this recent crackdown.”
“First off,” continues MBN, “there’s speculation that this factory was touted as an achievement of former President Biden when he announced its establishment during his visit to South Korea in May 2022, suggesting a political motive.”
Furthermore, “it’s clearly showing that if American workers are prioritized, even facilities of allied countries could be targeted… this particular raid has put South Korean companies that operated locally on high alert.”
MBN also said that “Despite pouring in billions of dollars, we’re facing intense scrutiny, making us feel blindsided.”
But Kim Dong-suk, the president of the Korean American Grassroots Conference, pointed out that “The Donald Trump administration’s immigration crackdown is the most critical campaign to secure victory in next year’s midterm elections. Korean companies investing in the US should take note and maintain composure until the elections are over.”
Not surprisingly, Hyundai Motor issued a statement reading:
“Hyundai is committed to full compliance with all laws and regulations in every market where we operate. This includes employment verification requirements and immigration laws. We are reviewing our processes to ensure that all parties working on our projects maintain the same high standards of legal compliance that we demand of ourselves. This includes thorough vetting of employment practices by contractors and subcontractors. Hyundai has zero tolerance for those who don’t follow the law.”
It is unfortunate that they didn’t live up to this policy before the raid, but there were extenuating circumstances. While pressing foreign companies to step up their investments in US manufacturing, the Trump administration has simultaneously made it more difficult for them to obtain work visas for employees dispatched to facilitate operations on site.
For this reason, most of the South Koreans detained in Georgia entered the US on the 90-day Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA), which can be easily obtained over the internet, or on B-1 visas. Both allow business trips, but neither permit manual labor, which puts factory engineers at risk. Other foreign companies, many of them Korean, face the same difficulty.
The Hyundai-LG factory, officially called HL-GA Battery Company, was originally scheduled to start production in 2026, but depending on the US government’s willingness to compromise, that may now be unrealistic.
And since the batteries will be used in Hyundai, Kia and Genesis EVs produced at the adjacent Hyundai Motor factory, vehicle production may also be delayed. Thousands of anticipated jobs and returns on billions of dollars of investment are likely to be affected.
The practical problems can be solved with time, but the deliberate humiliation of South Korean workers being treated like criminals on video and in photographs shown worldwide is unlikely to be forgotten any time soon.
Follow this writer on X: @ScottFo83517667
How to alienate a staunch ally. US Soon US will have no allies. With the exception of Israel .Better said, US is Israel’s staunch ally.
At least Israel defends itself without any US or other foreign boots on the ground. This is the opposite to South Korea now which, despite the huge threat from the north, is still fully reliant and dependent on US. The country has a declining population, many avoid conscription and the economy is in a decline after the new tariffs. It is South Korea that is surely abusing US hospitality and this incident should be a wake up call to them and other countries abusing US labour/visa laws
I think if you looked, you would find the U.S. does have boots on the ground in Israel, as well as our equipment, money, etc. all of Israel’s attacks must go through our bases, be refueled by our planes or our “allies”.
Go invest someplace more welcoming.
Thank you, President Trump. Thank you, ICE. They “humiliated” themselves by breaking the laws of their host country. Break our laws? Take American jobs, lie, cheat and steal? Pay the price.
A Dumb superficial MAGA boy is ranting about the situation he doesn’t know about very well, LOL !!!
While I agree with the idea that law breakers should be jailed- when was the last time you sped or jaywalked? Should you be chained? There was no need for such optics just to please Trump’s base. Every time something unseemly comes up about Epstein or Trump’s ties to Israel he does some ICE raid to solidify his base.
The head doesn’t know what the hands are doing while the legs are running all over the place in Ukraine and Gaza. All this while the body is decomposing. We’ll have a full fledged zombie on our hands very soon.
The workers will now return home in a chartered flight. Could this result have been achieved through negotiations, without having to go through the detentions.
Trump wants foreign companies to set up factories in the US and his ICE goons will arrest citizens from these countries. What a spectacle!
Re-industrialization in US is hard. The wider society must support the policy. The chance of a success is almost zero.
Welcome Koreans to America, the land that wants your technology but not your ppl. Have fun in the ICE cages they put you in. It’s funny that most Koreans probably look down on blacks, yet blacks hold a higher, more respected status in America than Koreans.
For your information, the intelligence of YOUNG WHITES in the U.S. are HARDLY better than that of American BLACKS. What I heard was these Korean companies tried very hard to hire QUALIFIED American workers but they could find ONLY very few of them.
No wonder NOT ONLY Koreans BUT ALSO any other East Asians look down on Americans regardless of their racial affiliation.
I didn’t mean to sound racist. Sorry. My problems with the Koreans is that they favor approaching the Americans on bended knee, ignoring whatever leverage they might have. As dumb as Modi is, he still recognizes that faking a pivot to China might more quickly get him what he wants than showing obedience, a templete other Asians ought to follow.
South Koreans have huge trade surpluses against the U.S so that they no choice with the rules-disregarding , capricious Trump.
As far as Modi is concerned, he has more leverage against Trump than the South Koreans do.I hope Modi teaches STUPID Trump a good lesson.
How disgraceful! How to alienate a formerly good friend. There was no need for this cheap stunt. US will live to regret it.
Unless S. Korea faces the reality of North Korea it may find itself alone like Taiwan facing overwhelming force. Even their new shinny K2 tanks being sold to Poland in large numbers are useless without the latest Israeli Trophy system !
Same thing will happen to Taiwanese at TSMCs plant in Colorado. Chump has to show these simps who is boss
And given that American don’t have the skills to get the required work done the battery plant and fabs won’t be completed on time and won’t run effectively