South Korea reached a deal with the United States on Sunday to bring home more than 300 of its citizens who were detained during a massive immigration raid at a Hyundai electric vehicle plant in Georgia. The South Korean government said it would send a charter plane to transport the workers back home once administrative procedures are complete.
The raid on Thursday was the largest single-site enforcement operation in the history of Homeland Security Investigations. Federal agents arrested 475 people at the sprawling Hyundai manufacturing site in Ellabell, Georgia, where the Korean automaker produces electric vehicles. Most of those detained were South Korean nationals working on construction of a battery plant at the facility.
According to The Hill, President Donald Trump defended the raid when asked about it by reporters, calling the whole situation “interesting” and saying Immigration and Customs Enforcement was doing “right” because the South Korean workers were in the U.S. “illegally.” He suggested foreign companies needed to train U.S. workers at factories they were building in America. “So we’re going to look at that whole situation,” Trump said.
South Korea scrambles diplomatic response
South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Hyun called an emergency meeting on Saturday and said he was “deeply concerned” about the arrests. President Lee Jae Myung ordered “all-out necessary measures” to support the detained Korean nationals and protect the rights of South Korean companies investing in the United States.
The raid stunned officials in Seoul because South Korea is a key U.S. ally that recently pledged hundreds of billions of dollars in American investments. Just two weeks before the raid, Trump and Lee held their first meeting at the White House, where South Korean firms committed to $150 billion in U.S. investments. In July, Seoul had pledged another $350 billion in U.S. projects to reduce Trump’s threatened tariffs.
The episode highlights tensions between Trump’s immigration crackdown and his efforts to attract foreign investment. The Hyundai facility represents Georgia’s largest economic development project, with the company investing $7.6 billion in the manufacturing site that employs about 1,200 people. Trump has been pushing companies to build factories in America as part of his economic agenda, but his immigration policies create challenges for bringing in skilled foreign workers.
