While the U.S. government says that last week’s raid of a Hyundai megaplant in Ellabell, Georgia, wasn’t like its normal immigration raids, the story being told in its aftermath suggests that mistakes were made.
Last week, federal officials from the Department of Homeland Security led a cadre of government agencies to the plant. They arrested 475 people, whom government officials say either crossed the border illegally from Mexico, overstayed their visas, or violated their non-work visas.
The majority of the detainees were Korean.
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“This operation was about safeguarding the integrity of the economy and preventing the exploitation of workers,” Steven Schrank, special agent in charge of Homeland Security Investigations in Atlanta, said.
“This was not an immigration operation where agents went into the premises, rounded up folks, and put them on buses.”
DHS said it conducted a “lengthy” investigation into the facility before making its move.
But since the raid, South Korean officials have condemned the action, saying that “the interests of our citizens must not be unduly violated during the course of U.S. law enforcement.”
On Monday, Korean officials took further action to ensure its citizens were cared for.
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South Korean Hyundai detainees to avoid deportation
On Monday, the South Korean Foreign Ministry said that the roughly 300 citizens caught up in the raid will be flown back to the country this week.
The South Korean foreign minister is expected to leave for the U.S. on Monday to secure the detainees’ release, and they are expected to board a flight out of the country on Wednesday.
This comes after a weekend of negotiations, during which the South Korean president’s office said it and the U.S. had reached a deal to allow them to be released and not face deportation.
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Deportation could trigger a lengthy reentry ban, the Wall Street Journal reported.
While DHS has said the detainees, who were taken to the Folkston ICE Detention to be processed, had violated the terms of their stays, South Korean officials have said that the affected workers held visas suitable for training purposes, like the B-1 visa, as many were working as instructors.
While the arrests happened at the Hyundai facility, the car company says none of its employees were affected. LG Energy, which also has a plant on the sprawling factory campus, said 47 of its employees were arrested, while others were employed as contractors.
Hyundai’s megaplant is a $7.6 billion investment
The HLGA battery company construction site, located on the Hyundai plant in Ellabell, Georgia, is a joint venture between LG Energy Solution and Hyundai.
In March, Hyundai Executive Chair Euisun Chung invited Georgia Governor Brian Kemp to the ribbon-cutting of its new $7.6 billion electric vehicle campus.
The investment expanded the sprawling facility, where the South Korean automaker expects to increase production capacity by two-thirds to 500,000 vehicles per year.
The 2,900-acre “megasite” has been in the works since May 2022. Georgia and local governments agreed to give Hyundai as much as $2.1 billion in tax breaks and other incentives to build the facility in the state.
As part of the deal, Hyundai agreed to invest $7.6 billion in the plant and hire 8,500 workers by the end of 2031.
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