SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea on Friday expressed “concern and regret” over a major U.S. immigration raid at a sprawling Georgia site where South Korean auto company Hyundai manufactures electric vehicles.
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 U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, which assisted immigration authorities at the site, posed on the social media site X that about 450 people total were apprehended.
Hyundai's South Korean office didn't 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 automaker, began manufacturing EVs a year ago at the $7.6 billion plant, which employs about 1,200 people, and has partnered with LG Energy Solution to build an adjacent battery plant, slated to open next year.
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.
In a televised statement, Lee said the ministry is taking active measures to address the case, dispatching diplomats from its embassy in Washington and consulate in Atlanta to the site, and planning to form an on-site response team centered on the local mission.
“The business activities of our investors and the rights of our nationals must not be unjustly infringed in the process of U.S. law enforcement,” Lee said.
The Department of Homeland Security said in a statement that agents executed a search warrant “as part of an ongoing criminal investigation into allegations of unlawful employment practices and other serious federal crimes.”
It did not say whether anyone was detained or arrested.
President Donald Trump's administration has undertaken sweeping ICE operations as part of a mass deportation agenda. Immigration officers have raided farms, construction sites, restaurants and auto repair shops.
The Pew Research Center, citing preliminary Census Bureau data, says the U.S. labor force lost more than 1.2 million immigrants from January through July. That includes people who are in the country illegally as well as legal residents.
Hyundai and LG's battery joint venture, HL-GA Battery Company, said in a statement that it's “cooperating fully with the appropriate authorities" and paused construction of the battery site to assist their work.
Operations at Hyundai's EV manufacturing plant weren't interrupted, said plant spokesperson Bianca Johnson.
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Bynum reported from Savannah, Georgia.