Atlanta (AP) – Airplane carrying more than 300 workers from South Korea Immigrant attack Last week, I left Atlanta shortly before noon on Thursday and headed for South Korea at a battery factory in Georgia.
Workers took a bus from a jailhouse in southeastern Georgia to Atlanta for a flight that is scheduled to land in South Korea on Friday afternoon. South Korean Foreign Ministry said detainees released by US authorities include 316 Koreans, 10 Chinese citizens, three Japanese citizens and one Indonesian.
South Korean Air Charter plane carrying Korean workers detained in immigration attacks at Georgia factory leaves Atlanta Hartsfield Jackson International Airport heading for South Korea on Thursday, September 11, 2025 (AP Photo/George Walker IV)
The workers were detained among approximately 475 people. Last week’s attack in Battery Factory It is under construction on the campus of Hyundai’s vast car factory west of the Savannah. They were being held at the Immigration Detention Center in Folkestone, 285 miles (460 km) southeast of Atlanta.
South Korean President Lee Jae Myung On Thursday, he said that improvements to the US visa system were called for, and that South Korean companies would likely be hesitant to make new investments in the US until that happens.
Lee said at a press conference that the Koreans and US officials had exchanged whether detainees must be handcuffed while traveling by bus to Atlanta. The Koreans “strongly opposed it.” He said there will also be debates about whether they will leave under “voluntary departures” or deportation.
While these debates were ongoing, US officials began returning the detainees’ belongings. But “everything stopped suddenly,” Lee said.
“President Trump had instructed (detainees) to be allowed to go home freely, and that those who don’t want to go don’t need to do that,” he said. “We were told that the process was suspended due to that direction and that the administrative procedures were changed accordingly.”
A South Korean Foreign Ministry official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the diplomatic process, saying Trump has stopped the process of hearing South Korea about whether South Korea should continue working and help train American workers or send them back to South Korea.
Lee said the US gave detainees the option to stay and return home. In the end, one of the Korean nationals who have relatives in the United States chose to stay, Lee said.
Korean workers and planes detained at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport in Atlanta will take off on Thursday, September 11th, 2025 (AP Photo/George Walker IV)
Trump administration Large deportation agenda It includes a series of workplace raids, which highlights its scope and the fact that the target is a state official at the manufacturing site, and is touted as Georgia’s biggest economic development project. Hyundai Motor Group began manufacturing EVs a year ago at a $7.6 billion factory employing around 1,200 people.
In a statement Wednesday, Gov. Brian Kemp’s office emphasized that “the strong relationship between South Korea and South Korean partners like Hyundai dates back 40 years to the establishment of Georgia’s Trade Bureau in Seoul.”
“We are grateful that they are repeating their commitment to complying with all state and federal laws, just as they continue to commit to not allowing this unfortunate incident to revoke the decades of mutually beneficial partnerships we have built up,” the spokesman said.
Detention of South Korean citizens has made the attacks unusual as they are often not involved in immigration enforcement measures.
A video released Saturday by the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement found a caravan of vehicles running to the site, before federal agents instructed workers to line up outside. Some detainees were ordered to raise their hands to the bus as they were jawed, then tied up around their hands, ankles and hips. Others had plastic ties around their wrists when they boarded the Georgia prisoner transport bus.
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Kim Dong-hyun reported from Seoul.
