South Korean foreign minister Cho Hyun will fly to Washington, DC today after immigration enforcement officers on Thursday raided an electric-vehicle battery plant under construction in Georgia, arresting some 300 Korean nationals and sparking a diplomatic incident.
The raid on 4 September, led by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and involving multiple federal agencies, saw 475 people working at the site arrested, including the Koreans.
Announced in May 2023, the $4.3bn factory in Ellabell, 25 miles west of Savannah, is a 50:50 joint venture between Korean firms Hyundai Motor and LG Energy Solution.
It’s part of Hyundai Motor’s $12.6bn investment in the state – billed as the biggest in Georgia’s history – that includes Hyundai’s “Metaplant America” electric vehicle factory, also in Ellabell, which began operations in March this year after construction started in 2022.
Most of the detainees are thought to have been working for subcontractors. Hyundai said none of its own employees were arrested, while battery maker LG Energy Solution said 47 of its employees were detained, The New York Times reported.
Watch the raid:
‘Massive event’
ICE announced the raid on Friday, saying: “The individuals arrested during the operation were found to be working illegally, in violation of the terms of their visas and/or statuses. People on short-term or recreational visas are not authorised to work in the US.”
More than 400 officers conducted Thursday’s raid following what ICE said were months of investigations.
US Attorney for the Southern District of Georgia, Margaret E. Heap, called the raid a “massive event”.
“The goal of this operation is to reduce illegal employment and prevent employers from gaining an unfair advantage by hiring unauthorised workers. Another goal is to protect unauthorised workers from exploitation,” she said.
No criminal charges have been announced. It remained unclear today what specifically the Korean nationals were accused of.
They’re being held at a detention centre in Folkston, Georgia, where South Korean consular officials met with 250 of them over the weekend, the Yonhap News Agency reports.
Plan to fly them home
On Sunday, South Korea’s presidential office said a chartered plane would fly to the US as soon as Wednesday to repatriate the Koreans once consultations with Washington to resolve the matter had concluded, Yonhap reported.
Foreign minister Cho Hyun will meet US officials today to “finalise the fundamental issues and ensure that no unexpected issues arise in the process of securing the release of our citizens”, a foreign ministry official said.
“We are working with the US to resolve the matter swiftly to make sure that all detained South Koreans can safely return home early,” the official said. “Once local procedures are completed, our plan is to bring them all back at the earliest possible date.”
According to Yonhap, Seoul is trying to arrange the Koreans’ voluntary return because deportation could prevent their future entry into the US.
Influx of South Koreans
The Savannah region has seen an influx of South Koreans since Hyundai’s investment surge.
The population of the nearby suburb of Pooler rose 22% between 2020 and 2024 to around 31,000, with community leaders estimating that half the growth has come from Koreans, The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reports.
Union anger
The issue of undocumented workers has sparked local tensions.
Barry Zeigler, business manager of Local Union 188, which represents plumbers, pipe-fitters, welders and air-conditioning technicians, told WSJ that some 65 union members installing mechanical piping at the battery plant were let go several months ago and replaced by what he claimed were undocumented workers.
Another local, Tori Branum, who is running in the May Republican primary for one of Georgia’s US congressional seats, told WSJ that she alerted the Department of Homeland Security to the presence of undocumented workers at the battery factory site.
A construction executive in Georgia who asked not to be named told GCR that the Trump administration was “developing a real problem: How to reconcile a policy of attracting and even retaining foreign manufacturing and investment while cultivating what appear to be ICE’s hostile practices against foreign nationals and immigration”.
The raid comes as US and South Korean officials continue to negotiate the details of a trade deal that would limit tariffs on South Korea.
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