The immigration authorities arrested hundreds of employees for a large South Korean battery in a work in Hyundai in Georgia, announced US officials on Friday, and named it as the greatest assetance at a single location.
Agents arrested 475 people on Thursday, of whom most South Korean citizens at a building location for a battery system for electric vehicles in Ellabell, Georgia, near Savannah, Steven Schrank, a special agent who is responsible for the investigation of the home protection for Georgia in a press conference.
The attack was the highlight of an investigation that took place for several months, he said.
Mr. Schrank said that the arrested workers were illegally in the United States or worked illegally. No criminal complaints were announced on Friday, he said, adding that the investigators still stipulated employment details for arrested, some of whom had worked for subcontractors.
The operation aimed at “ensuring a flat playing field for companies that comply with the law,” said Schrank.
Most of the arrested took place on Thursday evening in the Folkston Hafts Facility in Georgia.
The battery manufacturer LG Energy Solution, who has the system with the Hyundai Motor Group together, said in a statement that his employees and those from his partner companies had been custody.
Hyundai said in an explanation that none of the detained Hyundai employees were what the company knew.
“We are closely monitoring the situation and working on understanding the specific circumstances,” said Hyundai on Friday.
It added that it checked its processes “to ensure that all parties working on our projects maintain the same high standards for legal compliance that we demand from ourselves”, including “thorough review of employment practices by contractors and subcontractors”.
The South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed on Friday that South Koreans belonged to custody without saying how many.
Mr. Schrank announced reporters at the factory on Thursday that some US citizens and lawful constant residents had initially been detained and were released.
Charles Kuck, an immigration lawyer in Atlanta, said two of his customers who were in the country as part of a Visa reference program with whom they can travel for tourism or the business for stays of 90 days or less without getting a visa in the raid.
“My customers did exactly what they were allowed to do as part of the Visa waiver – visit business meetings,” he said on Friday, noticing that one of them “had just arrived on Tuesday and left next week”.
“It seems that ice was somewhat overzealous so as not to arrest immigrants who clearly obeyed the law,” he said.
James Woo, Communication Director for the Asian Americans' office in Atlanta, said he was on the phone with South Korean residents all day long throughout Georgia.
“People are shocked,” said Woo, adding that there were profound concerns about the treatment of the arrested of ICE officials. He noticed that the Korean community in Savannah was small and “never became one with the work and its workers”.
“There are not the same resources that you would find in Atlanta,” he said. “People don't know where to go or how to find legal representation.”
The operation, part of the immigration of President Trump, caused a diplomatic alarm in South Korea.
A little more than a week earlier, Mr. Trump was President Lee Jae Myung from South Korea in the White House, where the South Korean leader promised to invest another 150 billion US dollars in the USA, including battery production.
When he was asked on Friday whether he was concerned about his immigration agenda, which came together with the economic goals, Trump said that ice cream was doing his job.
“They got through illegally. They came to our country. So we have to do our job,” he told a reporter.
The operation on Thursday repeated other raids in the workplace, including a huge one that was carried out by Mr. Trump in various jobs in Mississippi during the first term. In 2019, federal agents searched several companies in the civil servants who at that time could have been the largest enforcement measure of the jobs of all time in a single state.
During this operation, more than 600 immigrants were arrested by which they worked without legal documents. The bidges administration announced that the practice of the enforcement process at companies in 2021 announced.
In another large raid at the workplace under the administration of President George W. Bush, 389 workers were arrested in a Koscher meat packaging company in Postville, Iowa, in May 2008. The company later registered bankruptcy this year.
The lithium-ion battery system, which is available before Mr. Lee's promise, is expected to be in operation next year. It is the type of large -scale, professionally created investments that the United States from South Korea and other nations have been looking for.
South Korean companies have invested tens of billions in American production in recent years, a large part of the IT incentives for federal grants and tax benefits for semiconductor systems and electric vehicle factories.
The Trump administration has already returned some of these obligations and may have damaged returns for giants such as SK Group, LG and Samsung.
At the end of July, the White House concluded a contract with South Korea, which would set 15 percent tariffs for most of the country's exports to the USA.
The South Korean managers informed the local media that they need their own technicians temporarily to put all of their factories into operation. At the same time, South Korean companies pay tariffs billions of dollars and reduce the capital that can spend on new facilities.
The Ellabell location is part of one of the largest production facilities in Georgia. Governor Brian Kemp from Georgia, a Republican, promoted the Hyundai EV factory of 7.6 billion US dollars there as the largest economic development project in history in the history of the state.
The immigration company brought the construction of the battery system, known as HL GA battery company, to a standstill. A spokeswoman, Mary Beth Kennedy, said in a statement that the work works with the authorities.
Jongwon Lee, a Korean lawyer who works in Metro Atlanta, said on Friday that South Korean conglomerates will bring enormous investments in the United States, but there is not enough visas to lead these factories to lead these factories.
The blame lies with the American visa system, he said. The United States “invited us to invest in the USA, but they don't give the Koreans real visas.”
The Democrat of State Representative Sam Park described the RAID as a “politically motivated attack” on Georgia workers and families.
“These raids are aimed at the people who build our future for clean energy while they tear down families,” he said. “Georgia's prosperity depends on protecting employees and not criminalizing them.”
The South Korean embassy and consular officers were sent from Washington and Atlanta to the construction site, said Lee Jawoong, a spokesman for the South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs, at a press conference on Friday.
“The economic activities of our investment companies and the rights and interests of our citizens must not be wrongly violated during the US criminal trial procedure,” he said.
LG Energy Solution said that it had worked with the South Korean government to publish its employees and the companies published in their partner companies.
The reporting was contributed by Eric L. Green, Christian Boon, Neal E. Boude, Lydia Deplilis and Miriam Jordan.
