{"id":37064,"date":"2025-09-12T04:53:10","date_gmt":"2025-09-12T04:53:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/south-korea-workers-detained-in-us-raid-head-home\/"},"modified":"2025-09-12T04:53:10","modified_gmt":"2025-09-12T04:53:10","slug":"south-korea-workers-detained-in-us-raid-head-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/south-korea-workers-detained-in-us-raid-head-home\/","title":{"rendered":"South Korea workers detained in US raid head home"},"content":{"rendered":"


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How the massive immigration raid on a Georgia car plant unfolded<\/figcaption><\/p>\n
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More than 300 South Koreans who were detained in a massive immigration raid at a Hyundai plant in the US state of Georgia last week are due to arrive home on Friday.<\/p>\n

Their return comes as the country’s president and Hyundai’s chief executive have warned about the impact of the raid.<\/p>\n

A chartered Korean Air jet carrying the workers and 14 non-Koreans who were also detained in the raid took off from Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport at midday local time on Thursday (17:00 BST). One South Korean national has reportedly chosen to stay in the US to seek permanent residency.<\/p>\n

The plane is expected to arrive at Incheon International Airport on Friday afternoon Seoul time.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The departure was delayed by more than a day because of an instruction from the White House, South Korean President Lee Jae Myung said on Thursday.<\/p>\n

President Donald Trump ordered the pause to check whether the workers were willing to remain in the US to continue working and training Americans, according to a South Korean foreign ministry official.<\/p>\n

The BBC has contacted the White House for comment.<\/p>\n

Lee also said companies would be “very hesitant” about investing in the US following the raid<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“The situation is extremely bewildering,” Lee added, while noting it is common practice for Korean firms to send workers to help set up overseas factories.<\/p>\n

“If that’s no longer allowed, establishing manufacturing facilities in the US will only become more difficult… making companies question whether it’s worth doing at all,” he added.<\/p>\n

Seoul is negotiating with Washington on visa options for South Korean workers “whether that means securing [higher] quotas or creating new visa categories”, Lee said.<\/p>\n

On Friday, the South Korean foreign ministry said it had called for the US Congress to support a new visa for Korean firms.<\/p>\n

During meetings with US senators in Washington this week, Foreign Minister Cho Hyun reiterated concerns among South Koreans over the arrests, the ministry said in a statement.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Hyundai’s chief executive Jos\u00e9 Mu\u00f1oz has said the raid will delay the factory’s opening<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Mr Mu\u00f1oz told US media that the raid will create “minimum two to three months delay [in opening the factory] because now all these people want to get back”.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"AFPAFP<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

A Korean Air plane has been chartered to bring more than 300 South Korean workers home from the US<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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Last week, US officials detained 475 people<\/a> – more than 300 of them South Korean nationals – who they said were working illegally at the battery facility, one of the largest foreign investment projects in Georgia.<\/p>\n

LG Energy Solution, which operates the plant with Hyundai, said that many of its employees who were arrested had various types of visas or were under a visa waiver programme.<\/p>\n

A worker at the plant spoke to the BBC<\/a> about the panic and confusion during the raid. The employee said the vast majority of the workers detained were mechanics installing production lines at the site, and were employed by a contractor.<\/p>\n

South Korea, a close US ally in Asia, has pledged to invest tens of billions of dollars in America, partly to offset tariffs.<\/p>\n

Media in the country have described the raid as a “shock,” with the Dong-A Ilbo newspaper warning that it could have “a chilling effect on the activities of our businesses in the United States”.<\/p>\n

The Yonhap News Agency published an editorial on Thursday urging the two countries to “cooperate to repair cracks in their alliance”.<\/p>\n

The timing of the raid, as the two governments engage in sensitive trade talks, has raised concern in Seoul.<\/p>\n

The White House has defended the operation at the Hyundai plant, dismissing concerns that the raid could deter foreign investment.<\/p>\n

On Sunday, US President Donald Trump referenced the raid in a social media post and called for foreign companies to hire Americans.<\/p>\n

The US government would make it “quickly and legally possible” for foreign firms to bring workers into the country if they respected its immigration laws, Trump said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Additional reporting by Hosu Lee in Seoul<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n


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How the massive immigration raid on a Georgia car plant unfolded More than 300 South Koreans who were detained in a massive immigration raid at a Hyundai plant in the US state of Georgia last week are due to arrive home on Friday. Their return comes as the country’s president and Hyundai’s chief executive have […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":37065,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[10011,257,4808,5975,613,849],"class_list":["post-37064","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-detained","tag-home","tag-korea","tag-raid","tag-south","tag-workers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37064","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37064"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37064\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37066,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37064\/revisions\/37066"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37065"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37064"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37064"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37064"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}