Ellabell, Ga. (AP) – The immigration authorities said on Friday that they had arrested 475 people, most of them South Korean citizens than when Hundreds of federal agents attack The extensive manufacturing point in Georgia, where the Korean car manufacturer Hyundai produces electric vehicles.
Steven Schrank, the senior Georgia agent for home protection examinations, said during a press conference on Friday that the RAID was due to a month-long examination of the allegations of illegal attitudes at the location and that the “largest operational operation of the individual locations” was in the agency's two-year history.
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The RAID on Thursday aimed at one of the largest and top-class manufacturing locations in Georgia, in which the Hyundai Motor Group started the production of electric vehicles a year ago in a plant of $ 7.6 billion. The site employs around 1,200 people in an area that about 40 kilometers west of Savannah about 40 kilometers, where bedroom communities bleed on farms. Governor Brian Kemp and other officials have advertised it as the state's largest economic development project.
Agents focused on an adjacent system that is still under construction, in which Hyundai worked with LG Energy Solution Produce batteries This makes Evs.
AP audio: Official officer of the homeland protection authority says
At a press conference, the person responsible for Homeland Security Investigations Special Agent Steven Schrank, said that an immigration attack in a Hyundai plan had detained hundreds.
Court files submitted this week showed that the prosecutors did not know who described “hundreds of illegal foreigners”. The identity of the “actual company or the contractor who hires the illegal foreigners is currently unknown,” wrote the US law firm in a registration of Thursday court.
The South Korean government expresses “concern”
The South Korean government expressed “concern and regret” about the operation, which aimed at its citizens.
Compared to other nationalities, Koreans are rarely involved in the enforcement of immigration. In the 12-month period that ended on September 30, 2024, only 46 Koreans were deported, of more than 270,000 distances for all nationalities, according to the immigration and customs authority.
“The business activities of our investors and the rights of our nationals must not be wrongly violated in the process of pursuit of the US criminal proceedings,” said Lee Jawoong, spokesman for the South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in a television declaration from Seoul.
Lee said that the Ministry of Diplomats from its embassy in Washington and Consulate in Atlanta send and plans to form a reaction team on site.
The lawyer of immigration, Charles Kuck, said that two of his customers who were arrested had arrived from South Korea as part of a Visa reference program that enables them to travel for tourism or business for stays of 90 days or less without receiving a visa.
One of his customers, he said, has been in the USA for a few weeks, while the other has been in the country for about 45 days. He gave no details about the kind of work they did, but they planned to go home soon.
Cabinet announced reporters in Savannah that some of the imprisoned workers illegally exceeded the US limit, but others had joined the country legally, but had expired visas or had occurred a waiver of visa who forbidden them to work the work. He said some of the imprisoned people worked for the battery manufacturer, while others were employed by contractors and subcontractors on the construction site.
Cabinet said he did not know exactly how many of the 475 detained Korean citizens, but that they made up a majority. Nobody has yet been charged with crimes, he said, but the examination continues. The South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Hyun said on Saturday that more than 300 South Koreans were among the 475 people.
“This was not an immigration operation in which agents went on the premises, summarized people and put them in buses,” said Schrank. “This was a multimonth -criminal examination in which we developed evidence and carried out interviews, collected documents and presented this evidence to the court in order to receive an arrest warrant for judicial searches.”
He said most of the detainees were brought to an immigration center in Folkston, Georgia, near the Florida State line.
Trump Administration has carried out comprehensive ice operations
President Donald Trump's government carried out as part of comprehensive ice operations A mass deportation. Have immigration officers Overfall agricultural farmsConstruction sites, restaurants and car repair workshops.
The Pew Research Center, citing the data of the preliminary census offices, according to the US workers have more than 1.2 million immigrants From January to July. This includes people who are illegal in the country, as well as legal residents.
The Democratic Party of Georgia condemned the raid with its chairman Charlie Bailey on Friday and called the raid: “Politically motivated anxiety tactics, the people who work hard for their livelihood, should participate in our economy and contribute to the communities in Georgia who have created them.”
Kemp and other Republican officials from Georgia, who had been courted Hyundai and celebrated the opening of EV facilities, stated on Friday that all employers in the state would follow the law.
The location of Hyundai is located at 3,000 acres (1,214 hectares) in a largely rural area of the Bryan district and draws workers from several surrounding counties and municipalities, including Savannah.
Sammie Rentz opened the Viet -Huong supermarket of less than 4.8 kilometers from the location of Hyundai six months ago. Business sells both American and Asian products, he said, but mainly relies on Hyundai workers who are imported by Korea.
“Koreans keep this shop going,” said Rentz, who fears that the business may not be crashing back after it has fallen back sharply since the raid. “I am concerned. Koreans are very proud people, and I bet they don't appreciate what has just happened. I am worried that they are cutting and running or an exit strategy begin.”
The Tanya Cox living in Ellabell, who lives less than a mile from the location of Hyundai, said that she has no bad feelings against Korean nationals or other employees of the migration background at the location. Only a few neighbors were busy there, and she had the feeling that more buildings had to go to the residents in the battery plant.
“I do not see how many jobs brought it to our community or near the communities,” said Cox. “Where we used to chirp birds and the animal life, we are now hearing the plant when it goes full at night.”
Hyundai started producing electric vehicles at the location last September. A few months later, the chairman of the Hyundai Motor Group, Euisun Chung, owed the President's decision to create more American jobs to the President during an appearance by the White House with Trump by building an EV factory in Georgia.
“Our decision to invest in Savannah, Georgia and create more than 8,500 American jobs, was initiated in 2019 during my meeting with President Trump in Seoul,” said Chung at the March event.
Battery system that is to be opened next year
The battery system operated by HL-GA Battery Co., a joint venture from Hyundai and LG Energy Solution, is to be opened next year.
In a search order and related affidavits, agents wanted employment documents for current and former employees. Personnel files; Salary billing information; Bank account information; Time tickets; Video and photos of workers; And immigration documents. Social security cards, visas, passports and birth certificates were also targeted. The agents also searched for records on the ownership and administration of several construction companies and contractors, which were mentioned in the search command materials.
The documents contained the names and photos of four people who were identified as “target persons” without further information.
In an explanation of The Associated Press, LG said that it “carefully monitors the situation and collects all relevant details”. It said it could not immediately confirm how many of his employees or Hyundai workers had been imprisoned.
The company in Hyundais EV production work was not interrupted by RAID, said the plants spokesman, Bianca Johnson.
The Hyundai Motor Company announced in a statement on Friday that none of his employees had been arrested so far. The company said it would check its practices to ensure that suppliers and subcontractors follow US working laws.
“Hyundai has no tolerance for those who do not follow the law,” says the company's statement.
HL-GA Battery Co. did not answer immediately on a request for comment on Friday. In a statement on Thursday, the company said that it “fully worked with the responsible authorities”.
Those who were arrested on Thursday that fight against deportation can be detained if their cases wind by the immigration court. The number of people in ice custody was 60,000 in August, an all -time high.
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Kim Tong-Hyung reported from Seoul, South Korea. The authors of Associated Press, Jeff Martin in Marietta, Georgia; Jeff Amy in Atlanta; And Mike Schneider in Orlando, Florida, contributed to this report.
