Trump's Biggest ICE Raid Hits Hyundai Plant in Georgia
Nearly 500 workers, most from South Korea, detained in a dramatic worksite sweep that halted construction on the state’s largest industrial project.
IN THE LARGEST SINGLE-SITE IMMIGRATION ENFORCEMENT OPERATION of Trump’s second term in the White House, federal agents stormed a Hyundai battery plant construction site in Georgia on Thursday, detaining at least 475 workers — most of them South Korean nationals — and halting construction on what had been billed as the state’s biggest industrial investment.
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Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), assisted by ICE, the FBI, the DEA, and state police, executed a judicial search warrant at the 3,000-acre site west of Savannah, where Hyundai and LG Energy Solution are building a $4.3 billion facility to supply batteries for electric vehicles. Video posted to social media showed agents in tactical vests ordering workers in hard hats and yellow safety vests to stop all construction and line up for questioning.
“This was not a random operation,” Steven Schrank, HSI’s special agent in charge for Georgia, told reporters. “This has been a months-long criminal investigation into unlawful employment practices. Arrests are being made.” He confirmed most of the detainees were Korean nationals, though some workers were from other countries, and said those taken into custody are being held at ICE’s Folkston Detention Center near the Florida line.
Hyundai and Seoul Respond
Hyundai said none of those detained were directly employed by the automaker and stressed that its EV production nearby has not been affected. “We are cooperating fully with law enforcement and are committed to complying with all labor and immigration regulations wherever we operate,” spokesperson Michael Stewart said. Construction of the battery plant has been paused.
The South Korean government lodged a sharp protest. “The economic activities of our companies investing in the U.S. and the rights and interests of our nationals must not be unfairly violated,” said Lee Jae-woong, a foreign ministry spokesperson, adding that diplomats from the embassy in Washington and the consulate in Atlanta had been dispatched to assist those detained.
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Political and Economic Fallout
The raid has thrown a spotlight on President Donald Trump’s escalating mass deportation drive, which has increasingly swept up non-criminal immigrants at workplaces ranging from farms to warehouses. The Pew Research Center estimates that the U.S. labor force lost more than 1.2 million immigrants from January through July, contributing to labor shortages even as Trump has pressed foreign companies to expand investment in America.
Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, a Republican who has championed the Hyundai-LGES project as a landmark for the state’s economy, did not immediately comment. The $12.6 billion investment was projected to create 8,500 jobs and was hailed by Hyundai’s executive chairman during a White House appearance with Trump earlier this year.
Workers in Limbo
Those detained include individuals who, according to federal officials, crossed the border illegally, overstayed visas, or entered the U.S. on visa waivers that barred them from working. No criminal charges have been filed so far, and it remains unclear how many detainees will face deportation proceedings. ICE custody levels have surged past 60,000 this summer, an all-time high.
Rights advocates condemned the operation as another instance of ICE prioritizing political spectacle over public safety. “This raid shows how Trump’s deportation machine is destabilizing families and businesses alike,” one advocate said.
As buses carried workers away from the construction site on Thursday, the immediate future of one of the South’s largest economic development projects — and the workers who built it — was thrown into uncertainty.
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Jeebus tapdancing Crow, what next!?!