South Korean workers fly home after Hyundai-LG Georgia immigration raid
Make us a preferred source
Make us a preferred source on Google
The news: US authorities released more than 300 South Koreans detained in an immigration raid at a Hyundai-LG battery plant under construction in Georgia and have sent them home on a chartered flight Thursday, South Korea’s Foreign Ministry said.
The Koreans, who had been held for nearly a week at a detention centre in Folkston, Georgia, walked out in their own clothing without handcuffs, boarded buses to Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson airport and departed on a chartered Korean Air flight just after 11:30am local time.
According to a South Korean official cited by The Wall Street Journal, President Trump paused the repatriation process to hear South Korea’s position on whether the detained workers should remain in the US or return home. Seoul reportedly said the workers were exhausted and should first go back to South Korea, a position the US accepted.
The numbers: A total of 317 South Korean nationals were detained, with all but one agreeing to board the plane, the authorities said. Fourteen others who were detained (10 Chinese, three Japanese and one Indonesian) were also expected to leave, according to the ministry.
US authorities had a search warrant when entering the site in Ellabell, Georgia, and said the detained workers had either been working or living in the country without legal status.
About 475 workers were arrested in the operation, which US officials said was the largest single-site enforcement action in Department of Homeland Security history.
What they said: Hyundai Motor CEO José Muñoz said the raid would delay the start of operations at the USD 7.6 billion Georgia plant by at least two to three months.
“Because now all these people want to get back,” he said. “Then you need to see how can you fill those positions. And for the most part, those people are not in the US.”
He added that “even though this has been a very unfortunate incident, the strategic importance of the US market for our company doesn’t change,” he said. “We have been making a lot of investments over the last few years and we will continue.”
The sources: Bloomberg, The Wall Street Journal, CNBC
