South Korean workers arrested in US raid being released, Seoul says

President Lee Jae-myung warns raids could see South Korean companies ‘hesitate’ to make bigger investments in the US.

Hundreds of South Koreans arrested in a huge immigration raid in the United States are being released to begin the journey home, Seoul said, after warning the “bewildering” episode may have a negative effect on future investment.

South Korea’s President Lee Jae-myung said on Thursday that Korean companies will likely hesitate to make further investments in the US unless Washington improves its visa system for their employees.

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This comes after a September 4 immigration raid resulted in the arrest of South Korean workers at a battery factory under construction at Hyundai’s sprawling auto plant west of Savannah.

“When you build a facility or install equipment at a plant, you need technicians, but the United States doesn’t have that workforce and yet they won’t issue visas to let our people stay and do the work,” Lee said during a news conference on Thursday marking his 100th day in office.

South Korea’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Thursday that US authorities have released the 330 detainees – 316 of them Koreans – and they were being transported by buses to Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson airport, where they will board a charter flight scheduled to arrive in South Korea on Friday.

The group also includes 10 Chinese, three Japanese and one Indonesian national.

South Korean President Lee Jae-myung [File: Kim Min-Hee AFP]

During Lee’s news conference, he said South Korean officials were in discussions with their US counterparts over ways to improve the current system, but added that South Korean companies “can’t help hesitating a lot” about making bigger investments if the workers they need are likely to be arrested by immigration authorities.

“If that’s not possible, then establishing a local facility in the United States will either come with severe disadvantages or become very difficult for our companies. They will wonder whether they should even do it,” Lee added.

‘Cultural differences’

On September 4, the South Korean nationals and other workers were arrested for alleged visa violations at the still-under-construction Hyundai plant in Georgia by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents. A spokesperson for ICE said the raid was part of a months-long investigation into labour practices at the site.

Authorities shared the published footage of the workers with chains around their waists and hands, which was widely covered by the South Korean media and scandalised the public.

At the time, South Korea’s Foreign Ministry said “business activities of our investors and the rights of our nationals must not be unjustly infringed in the process of US law enforcement.”

The raids came just two weeks after US President Donald Trump reached a breakthrough agreement that spared the Asian electronics exports giant steep tariffs for its products entering the US. As part of the deal, Trump said South Korea had committed to sinking $350bn in investments in the US economy, which Trump added on his Truth Social platform would be “owned and controlled by the United States, and selected by myself”.

The two countries had a total trade volume of $239.6bn in 2024, according to US trade data.

The flight back to South Korea for the workers was reportedly meant to go ahead on Wednesday, but was stopped by Trump, according to the Financial Times, which reported that Trump wanted the workers to remain to train Americans.

South Korean officials said on Thursday that Trump offered to allow the workers to stay in the US, but only one has opted to remain. TV footage showed the workers boarding buses outside the barbed-wire clad fences of a detention centre in the early hours of Thursday to go to Atlanta airport.

Trump had distanced himself from the immigration hawks in his party, saying foreign companies were welcome to “LEGALLY bring your very smart people, with great technical talent”. In a post on Truth Social, he added: “But we do have to work something out where we bring in experts so that our people can be trained so that they can do it themselves.”

South Korea’s Lee called the US raid “bewildering”. He blamed it on “cultural differences”, saying at the news conference that in South Korea, US nationals teaching English while on a tourist visa were not seen as “a serious issue”.

“But the United States clearly doesn’t see things that way,” he added.

After the arrests, South Korean companies “can’t help but question whether setting up a plant in the US is worth the potential risks”, Lee said.

Source:

Al Jazeera and news agencies