This image of the video provided by American immigration and the application of customs via DVIDs shows that employees of the manufacturing plant are escorted outside the Hyundai Motor Group electric vehicle plant, Thursday, September 4, 2025, in Ellabelll, Ga
Corey Bullard / US Immigration and Customs Shall via AP
The South Korean government declared that he tried to return his nationals detained during an immigration raid on a Hyundai Installation in Georgia last week.
Federal and immigration agents have made a massive scan on the factory in Ellabell, Georgia, arresting 475 people as part of an investigation into allegations of illegal employment practices. A South Korean spokesman told NBC News that more than 300 of the arrests were South Korean nationals.
The American authorities, who had a search warrant, said that arrested workers worked or lived illegally in the country.
The office of the South Korean president Lee Jae Myung said on Sunday that prisoners would have returned to South Korea for an chartered flight. When asked for comments on Monday, Hyundai directed CNBC to her Friday declaration which said that she was “determined to comply with all the laws and regulations on each market”.
Thursday’s raid, the last of President Donald Trump’s repression against illegal immigration, marked the largest unique application operation of the Ministry of Internal Security in his history, according to Steven Schrank, a special agent in charge of internal security surveys in Georgia.
On Sunday, the Blanche Blanche Czar Tom Homan told CNN’s “state of the Union” on Sunday that the Trump administration would continue to focus on workplaces for immigration raids.
“We are going to do more operations in the application of the site,” he said. “These companies that hire illegal extraterrestrials, they have undergone their competition which pays the wages of American citizens.”
The Georgia factory is home to South Korean companies Hyundai and LG Energy Solution, which together build a battery manufacturing plant. The Hyundai factory of $ 7.6 billion employs more than 1,200 people. The company began to build its manufacturing plant in 2022 and began to manufacture electric vehicles less than two years later, making the factory one of the largest economic developments in the state.
LG Energy Solution said on Saturday that 47 of its employees had been detained, as well as 250 additional people of “equipment partner companies”.
Schrank said workers were employed by entrepreneurs and subcontractors.
In a declaration on Friday, American lawyer Margaret Heap said that more than 400 agents had participated in the RAID.
“The objective of this operation is to reduce illegal employment and prevent employers from obtaining an unfair advantage by hiring unauthorized workers,” Heap said in the press release. “Another objective is to protect unauthorized operating workers.”
On Friday, in a statement to NBC News, Hyundai said that it was monitoring the situation and that none of the prisoners were direct employees of the automotive company.
The South Korean government said on Friday that it had transmitted its “concern and regret” to the United States Embassy and urged them to ensure that the rights of South Korean employees were not raped.
“During the American police, the economic activities of our investment companies and the rights and interests of our nationals must not be unjustly raped,” said Lee Jae-Woong, spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of South Korea.
In a social article of truth, Trump wrote that he called all foreign companies that invest in the United States to “respect the immigration laws of our country”.
“Your investments are welcome, and we encourage you to legally bring your very intelligent people, with large technical talents, to build world class products, and we will make you quickly and legally possible for you.
Addressing journalists on Sunday, Trump also said that the RAID had no connection with the economic ties between the two countries, saying that the United States had “a great relationship” with South Korea.
Hyundai told NBC News on Monday morning that business trips to the United States remained in place, with some trips subject to an internal examination.