An extensive Hyundai production facility in a quiet community in Southeast -Georgia became zero on Thursday because of one of the most extensive immigration attacks in the latest US history. The operation, months in the origin, ended with 475 arrests, most of them Korean citizens.
When State Trooper's streets blocked, which led to the work and set up a security scope, almost 500 federal, state and local civil servants flocked to the extensive battery production facility that was still under construction.
The agents moved quickly and hired workers along the walls. The word of the robbery spread over the property and triggered a scramble among workers who tried to flee, and some ran to a sewage pond and others who hid in air ducts.
The officials spoke to every worker one after the other to determine that were legally in the United States, allowed some to go and take the rest in custody, to move them outside the location and to bring them to the folkston ice processing center, said civil servants.
Your work was done at 8 p.m.
The high commitment in Ellabell, about 40 miles west of Savannah, Georgia, was the result of what the authorities described as meticulously coordinated investigation with several federal and state authorities and weeks of the summary of the secret services.
Federal agents relegated Hyundai on Thursday morning as if it were a “war zone”, a construction worker in the electric car system told CNN on Friday.
The worker who asked not to be named to protect his privacy said that he was part of the first group of people who were summarized by federal agents.
“They only said to everyone that they should go to the wall. We stood there for about an hour and were then brought to a different section in which we waited. Then we went to another building and were processed,” said the employee.
Masked and armed agents gave commands to the construction workers who wore hard hats and safety vests when they set up while the officials fell through the facility, as video recordings of CNN showed.
The agents claimed every employee according to their social security number, the date of birth and other identifying information, said the employee. Workers who were clarified then received a piece of paper that, according to the employee, submitted the officers at the gate on the gate.
Another worker told CNN Affiliate Univision that he hid in an air duct to escape capture.
“Everyone came races and told us that immigration arrived,” said the not identified man. “We hid in an air canal and it was really hot.”
During the raid, several people tried to flee, including some who “came across a sewage pond on the premises,” said the US public prosecutor's office for the southern district of Georgia.
“Agents used a boat to fish them from the water. One of the people swam under the boat and tried to turn it over without success,” said the US law firm. “These people were captured and identified as illegal workers.”
The video shows the workers in the Hyundai plant in Ellabell, Georgia, and is arrested after trying to flee during the raid on Thursday.
In a search order submitted on Tuesday in the southern district of Georgia, four people were expressly found to be searched. However, the authorities came with considerable staff and equipment, which suggested the intention to carry out a wider sweep.
All 475 people taken in custody were illegal in the USA, said Steven Schrank, a responsible special representative of Homeland Security Investigations. Some crossed the United States illegally, some had visa excavation regulations and it was allowed to prohibit the work and some had exceeded their visa, he said.
The majority are Korean citizens, said Schrank and added that he had no breakdown of the nationalities of the arrested. Over 300 of the people arrested were South Koreans, said Foreign Minister Cho Hyun on Saturday.
South Korean President Lee Jae Myung asked the officials to take “the necessary measures” to support Korean citizens, Cho said after an emergency meeting in Seoul because of the arrests.
“If necessary, I am ready to travel personally to Washington, DC, to deal directly with US officials to solve this matter,” said Cho.
The Korean ambassador in the United States and the Consul General in Atlanta had set up a reaction team on site that “assess and emphasize countermeasures and emphasize the rights of our citizens, and the economic activities of Korean companies that invest in the United States must be protected from unjustified violations”, added Cho.
Cabinet found that some employees may have been contractors or subcontractors. A Hyundai spokesman said CNN that he did not think someone was arrested, a direct employee of the Hyundai Motor Company.
“We check our processes to ensure that all parties working on our projects maintain the same high standards for legal compliance that we demand from us. This includes a thorough review of the employment practices by contractors and subcontractors,” said the company on Friday evening in a statement and added: “Hyundai has no tolerance for those who do not follow the law.”
In the United States without papers, be it by crossing the border without permission or oversuking a visa, it is usually considered a civil law violation rather than a criminal offense. Employers in the United States rely on the federal E-Verify system more than 20 years ago in order to check the legal authorization of new employees. However, officials from the Trump administration criticized the system as unreliable without presenting a more effective alternative.
South Korea said it sent diplomats to the site in response to the robbery and added that it had contacted the US message in Seoul in order to demand the USA “to be caution” when it comes to the rights of Korean citizens.
Charles Kuck, immigration lawyer of Georgia, told CNN that two of his customers were arrested at the raid after they had arrived from South Korea as part of a Visa reference program that enables them to travel up to 90 days for tourism or business.
One customer arrived to the USA last week, and the other arrived a few weeks ago, he said.
“They were entitled to work in the USA under a waiver of visa,” said Kuck. “Every persecuted activities in harmony with the Visa reference program.”
The customers, both engineers, came to the USA to “briefly advise on work” and, according to Kuck, plan to return to South Korea shortly.
“This trip was actually part of their assigned tasks abroad,” said Kuck.
Investigations for ice and home protection examinations were accompanied by the Georgia Department of Public Safety, the office of the Ministry of Labor, the FBI, the DEA, the US -Zoll and border protection, the office for alcohol, tobacco, firearms and explosive, IRS and Georgia State Patrol.
“This was not an immigration operation in which agents went on the premises, summarized people and put them in buses,” said Schrank at a press conference on Friday.
“This was a multi -month criminal investigation, in which we developed evidence, carried out interviews, collected documents and presented this evidence to the court in order to obtain judicial search commands”, an allusion to some previous immigration authorities that were checked under taxable statements.
All agencies took part in the execution of a search command in the context of an ongoing criminal investigation of “allegations of illegal employment practices and other serious federal crimes”, the Department of Homeland Security said in an explanation.
“Together we send a clear and clear message: Those who take advantage of our workforce, undermine our economy and violate federal laws are held accountable.”
The arrest warrant showed that civil servants were looking for records of “conspiracies to the conspiracy against port or shield” in the USA. The notes sought included employment and hiring documents, correspondence with federal civil servants as well as identification and immigration documents.
The company was the largest operational operation of immigration and enforcement of immigration and customs waste.
In 2022, Hyundai announced an agreement with the state of Georgia on the construction of Hyundai in Bryan County in Bryan County, the company said. The extensive, 2,900 hectare Hyundai metaplant has two parts: a production of Hyundai Electric Vehicle and an EV battery system that is a joint venture between Hyundai and LG. The facility was expected to employ up to 8,500 employees.
The RAID stuck the construction of the EV battery system, reported the Associated Press.
Small groups from demonstrators gathered on Friday in Savannah and on a transfer near the facility and sang: “Get your ice cream from Savannah!” And signs with reading “Ice Go Home”.
Georgia Governor Brian Kemp's office made an explanation on Friday in response to the attack. “In Georgia we will always enforce the law, including all state and federal immigration laws,” said a Kemp spokesman. “The Ministry of Public Security has coordinated with ICE to ensure all the necessary support for this operation, the youngest in a long series of cooperation and partnership between the law enforcement agencies of the states and the implementation of the immigration of the federal government.”
