South Korea has complained after United States Department of Homeland Security officials detained hundreds of people, including alleged undocumented South Korean workers, during a raid on a Hyundai-LG battery plant being built in the state of Georgia.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Seoul on Friday demanded the rights of its investors and citizens to be respected following the raid a day earlier.
Hours later on Friday, the US Department of Homeland Security confirmed that 475 people had been detained in raid, the majority from South Korea. A spokesperson said the immigration component of the raid came as part of a larger, months-long investigation into labour practices at the site.
The episode highlights the disruptive effect President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown is having on his efforts to attract foreign investment. The Hyundai-LG plant is part of the biggest foreign investment in the state of Georgia.
“The business activities of our investors and the rights of our nationals must not be unjustly infringed in the process of US law enforcement,” South Korea’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Lee Jaewoong, said during a televised address.
Since Trump returned to power in January, the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency has been bolstered by record funding and new latitude to conduct raids.
The president has said he wants to deport “the worst of the worst” criminals. But ICE figures show a rise in the detainment of non-criminals.
Trump has also shifted his administration’s approach to workplace raids, which business leaders have warned could undermine industries that rely heavily on undocumented and seasonal workers not easily replaced with domestic labour.
The Pew Research Center, citing preliminary Census Bureau data, has said the US labour force lost more than 1.2 million immigrants from January through July of this year.
White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson framed the Hyundai raid as part of a wider enforcement campaign against undocumented foreign workers.
“Any foreign workers brought in for specific projects must enter the United States legally and with proper work authorisations,” Jackson said. “President Trump will continue delivering on his promise to make the United States the best place in the world to do business, while also enforcing federal immigration laws.”
Steven Schrank, the special agent in charge of Homeland Security investigations in Atlanta, said the operation “underscores our commitment to jobs for Georgians and Americans.”
He described the raid as the “largest single-site enforcement operation” in the department’s history. The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees an array of sub-agencies, including US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), US Customs and Border Protection, the Secret Service, and several national security entities.
Thursday’s raid targeted a manufacturing site that has been touted by Georgia Governor Brian Kemp as the largest economic development project in the state’s history.
Hyundai Motor Group, South Korea’s biggest automaker, began manufacturing electric vehicles (EVs) a year ago at the $7.6bn plant, which employs about 1,200 people. The company has partnered with LG Energy Solution to build an adjacent battery plant, slated to open next year.
Reporting from Washington, DC, Al Jazeera’s Mike Hanna said it remained unclear how many individuals were detained for being in the US without proper documentation and how many were potentially arrested for other violations.
“It’s a bit of a mishmash, and there is no clarity on what exactly is going to happen to those who are arrested during this operation,” he said.
A South Korean government official earlier told Reuters news agency that many of the detainees were being held at an ICE detention facility.
Speaking during a televised address, South Korea’s top diplomat Lee said his country is taking active measures to address the case, dispatching diplomats from its embassy in Washington and consulate in Atlanta to the site, and planning to form an on-site response team centred on the local mission.
In July, Seoul pledged $350bn in US investment to ease tariff threats from Trump. The US president hosted South Korean President Lee Jae Myung at the White House in August.
