This picture from video supplied by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement by way of DVIDS exhibits manufacturing plant staff ready to have their legs shackled on the Hyundai Motor Group’s electrical automobile plant, Thursday, Sept. 4, 2025, in Ellabell, Ga.
Corey Bullard/U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement
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Corey Bullard/U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement
SEOUL, South Korea — Greater than 300 South Korean employees detained following an enormous immigration raid at a Hyundai plant in Georgia can be launched and introduced residence, the South Korean authorities introduced Sunday.
Presidential chief of employees Kang Hoon-sik mentioned that South Korea and the U.S. had finalized negotiations on the employees’ launch. He mentioned South Korea plans to ship a constitution airplane to carry the employees residence as quickly as remaining administrative steps are accomplished.
U.S. immigration authorities mentioned Friday they detained 475 individuals, most of them South Korean nationals, when tons of of federal brokers raided Hyundai’s sprawling manufacturing web site in Georgia the place the Korean automaker Hyundai makes electrical automobiles. South Korea’s Overseas Minister Cho Hyun later mentioned that greater than 300 South Koreans have been among the many detained.
The operation was the most recent a protracted line of office raids carried out as a part of the Trump administration’s mass deportation agenda. However the one on Thursday is particularly distinct due to its giant dimension and the truth that it focused a producing web site state officers have lengthy referred to as Georgia’s largest financial improvement mission.
Video launched by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Saturday confirmed a caravan of automobiles driving as much as the positioning after which federal brokers directing employees to line up exterior. Some detainees have been ordered to place their palms up in opposition to a bus as they have been frisked after which shackled round their palms, ankles and waist.
Brokers targeted their operation on an a plant that’s nonetheless below building at which Hyundai has partnered with LG Power Resolution to provide batteries that energy EVs.
The general public detained have been taken to an immigration detention middle in Folkston, Georgia, close to the Florida state line. None has been charged with any crimes but, Steven Schrank, the lead Georgia agent of Homeland Safety Investigations, mentioned throughout a information convention Friday, including that the investigation is ongoing.
The South Korean authorities, a detailed U.S. ally, expressed “concern and regret” over the raid concentrating on its residents and despatched diplomats to the positioning.
