Three days ago, ICE stormed the Hyundai–LG battery plant in Georgia, part of an $8 billion project that isn’t even operational yet, taking 475 people into custody. They dragged out more than 300 South Korean engineers and specialists, people flown in to help set up the plant so it could eventually employ thousands of Americans. This plant wasn’t scheduled to start running until late 2025 or early 2026. These workers weren’t taking jobs; they were building the factory that would create them. Most of the people detained were South Korean nationals flown in by subcontractors to help build the very factory Trump’s White House has been bragging as proof America is “open for business.”
This wasn’t about “undocumented” workers. At worst, it was about visa infractions—the wrong paperwork, the wrong classification. Instead of sorting it out, we humiliated our allies and hauled their workers off in shackles.
And some of the people ICE arrested were U.S. citizens, according to the Department of Homeland Security. “Steven Shrank, a special agent in charge of Homeland Security Investigations for Georgia, said during a news conference” two days after the raid “that some U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents were also detained in the raid and would be released,” reports the New York Times. None of these people was charged under 8 USC §1324a with hiring illegal alien employees.
As one commentator notes, “Diplomatically, Seoul is furious. The South Korean foreign ministry expressed ‘concern and regret,’ which is diplomatic code for ‘you clowns just humiliated our investors and we have to pretend we still like you.’ Keep in mind South Korean firms have pledged one hundred fifty billion dollars in U.S. investments, twenty six billion of that from Hyundai alone. So Washington begged Seoul to anchor its electric vehicle supply chain here, gave them fat tax incentives,” yet ICE “went in and dragged their engineers out of the trailer office. Nothing says ‘welcome partner’ quite like zip ties and detention buses.”
