South Korea on Friday expressed “concern and regret” over a major US immigration raid at a sprawling Georgia site where South Korean auto company Hyundai manufactures electric vehicles.
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South Korean Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lee Jaewoong described the number of detained South Koreans as “large”, though he did not provide an exact figure.
His ministry would not confirm or deny South Korean media reports saying that about 300 South Koreans were detained in Georgia on Thursday. The Atlanta office of the US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, which assisted immigration authorities at the site, posted on the social media site X that about 450 people in total were apprehended.
Hyundai’s South Korean office did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Thursday’s raid targeted one of Georgia’s largest and most high-profile manufacturing sites, touted by the governor and other officials as the largest economic development project in the state’s history. Hyundai Motor Group, South Korea’s biggest carmaker, began manufacturing EVs a year ago at the US$7.6 billion plant, which employs about 1,200 people, and has partnered LG Energy Solution to build an adjacent battery plant, slated to open next year.
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ICE spokesman Lindsay Williams confirmed that federal authorities conducted an enforcement operation at the 3,000-acre (1,214-hectare) site west of Savannah, Georgia. He said agents were focused on the construction site for the battery plant.