Wednesday, September 10, 2025 - A South Korean charter plane left for the U.S. on Wednesday to bring back Korean workers detained in an immigration raid in Georgia last week.
A total of 475
workers, more than 300 of them South Koreans, were rounded up in the Sept. 4 raid at the
battery factory under construction at Hyundai’s sprawling auto plant. U.S.
authorities released video showing some being shackled with chains around their
hands, ankles and waists, causing shock and a sense of betrayal among many in
South Korea, a key U.S. ally.
South Korea’s government later said it reached an agreement
with the U.S. for the release of the workers.
South Korean TV
footage showed the charter plane, a Boeing 747-8i from Korean Air, taking off
at Incheon International Airport, just west of Seoul. South Korea’s Foreign
Ministry earlier said it was pushing to have the charter plane depart from the
U.S. as early as Wednesday U.S. time.
The Korean
workers are currently being held at an immigration detention center in Folkston
in southeast Georgia. South Korean media reported that they will be freed and
moved to Atlanta to take the charter plane that will bring them back home on
Thursday evening.
South Korean
officials said they've been negotiating with the U.S. to win “voluntary”
departures of the workers, rather than deportations that could result in making
them ineligible to return to the U.S. for up to 10 years.
The workplace raid by the U.S. Homeland Security agency
was its largest yet as it pursues its mass deportation agenda. The Georgia battery plant, a joint
venture between Hyundai and LG Energy Solution, is one of more than 20 major
industrial sites that South Korean companies are currently building in the
United States.
Many South
Koreans view the Georgia raid as a source of national disgrace and remain
stunned over it. Only 10 days earlier, South Korean President Lee
Jae Myung and U.S. President Donald Trump held their first summit in
Washington on Aug. 25. In
late July, South Korea also promised hundreds of billions of dollars in U.S.
investments to reach a tariff deal.
Experts say South
Korea won't likely take any major retaliatory steps against the U.S., but the
Georgia raid could become a source of tensions between the allies as the Trump
administration intensifies immigration raids.
U.S. authorities
said some of the detained workers had illegally crossed the U.S. border, while
others had entered the country legally but had expired visas or entered on a
visa waiver that prohibited them from working. But South Korean experts and
officials said Washington has yet to act on Seoul’s yearslong demand to ensure
a visa system to accommodate skilled Korean workers needed to build facilities,
though it has been pressing South Korea to expand industrial investments in the
U.S.
South Korean
companies have been relying on short-term visitor visas or Electronic System
for Travel Authorization to send workers needed to launch manufacturing sites
and handle other setup tasks, a practice that had been largely tolerated for
years.
LG Energy
Solution, which employed most of the detained workers, instructed its South
Korean employees in the U.S. on B-1 or B-2 short-term visit visas not to report
to work until further notice, and told those with ESTAs to return home
immediately.
During his visit
to Washington, South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Hyun met representatives of
major Korean companies operating in the U.S. including Hyundai, LG and Samsung
on Tuesday. Cho told them that South Korean officials are in active discussions
with U.S. officials and lawmakers about possible legislation to create a
separate visa quota for South Korean professionals operating in the U.S.,
according to Cho's ministry.
Trump said this week the workers “were here illegally,” and
that the U.S. needs to work with other countries to have their experts train
U.S. citizens to do specialized work such as battery and computer
manufacturing.
Atlanta immigration attorney Charles Kuck, who
represents four of the detained South Korean nationals, told The Associated
Press on Monday that no company in the U.S. makes the machines used in the
Georgia battery plant. So they had to come from abroad to install or repair
equipment on-site — work that would take about three to five years to train
someone in the U.S. to do, he said.
The South Korea-U.S. military alliance, forged in
blood during the 1950-53 Korean War, has experienced ups and downs over the
decades. But surveys have shown a majority of South Koreans support the two
countries’ alliance, as the U.S. deployment of 28,500 troops in South Korea and
50,000 others in Japan has served as the backbone of the American military
presence in the Asia-Pacific region.
During a Cabinet
Council meeting on Tuesday, Lee said he felt “big responsibility” over the raid
and expressed hopes that the operations of South Korean businesses won’t be
infringed upon unfairly again. He said his government will push to improve
systems to prevent recurrences of similar incidents in close consultations with
the U.S.
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