Last week, more than 300 Korean workers detained by Georgia’s immigration agency returned home Friday, marking the end of the saga, which surprised their country and threatened to overturn the close bilateral friendship between the US and South Korea.
After leaving Atlanta, the workers arrived at Seoul’s international airport. A small crowd was waiting for them to arrive at the airport. One member set up a tall banner depicting President Donald Trump’s face mask, armed ice agents carrying guns and chains. “We are friends! Banner reads.
For workers who were chained during the attack and were detained for several days, it likely was a week of confusion and fear.
But as they were waiting for the news inside the ice facility, the real pandemic was happening outside – a top South Korean diplomat rushed to Washington to negotiate their release.
South Korea and the United States have been solid allies since the end of the Korean War in 1953, and have been closer to joint efforts to strengthen cooperation and combat China’s influence in the Indo-Pacific region in recent years. South Korea also has the largest overseas base in the US military, houseing 41,000 people, including the military and their families.
Thus, the image of skilled workers handcuffed and bound by ice agents has infuriated many in Korea and raised questions about the economic partnership that led these detained workers to the United States in the first place. Trump himself encouraged it.
In August, the summit between President Trump and South Korean President Lee Jae Myung brought promises to invest billions of dollars in the US from a major South Korean conglomerate. It is unclear whether these transactions are part of previous customs transactions that outlined a $350 billion investment flow from South Korea to the US.
Automaker Hyundai is part of its investment efforts, with Hyundai’s chairman pledging to invest $20 billion in the US after meeting Trump in March (he raised another $5 billion after the Lee-Trump Summit in August).
Given Trump’s personal involvement in asking for South Korea’s investment, many were left unsettled when ICE attacked a battery factory jointly owned by Hyundai and LG in Georgia.
It is not clear what the worker’s visa status is. Immigration officials alleged that many people had illegally entered the country or overstayed visas, but some attorneys for detained workers claim that their clients are working legally on the Georgia site.
It is also not clear whether these workers will be allowed to continue their work, what the future of South Korean investment in the US will look like, or what will happen to modern plants.
This week, South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Hyun urged Secretary of State Marco Rubio to allow workers to re-enter the United States and continue working at subsequent times, the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
US officials responded uncommittedly, saying, “We will respect this position and immediately move forward with our repatriation schedule.”
South Korean president Lee won a stronger tone on Thursday. He warned that the situation was “very confusing” for US Korean companies, causing companies to question “whether they should go at all,” and that “may have a major impact on foreign direct investment in the US.”
He added that negotiations are underway on the possibility of creating new visa categories and increasing visa allocations for Korean workers.
Meanwhile, in Georgia, battery plants are facing a minimum startup delay of two to three months, Hyundai CEO Josemúnoz said in his first public comment Thursday since the attack, according to Reuters.
The site will be Hyundai’s first fully electrified vehicle and battery manufacturing campus in the United States. Project state leaders have pledged to bring 8,500 jobs and transform the rural economy.
That promise now feels more and less tenuous. Few full-time employees are still employed, the complex is still under construction, and most of the workforce is temporary staff on temporary visas and contracts, like those swept into ice.
In a Reuters report, Munoz said many of the detained workers are primarily employed by LG suppliers, and Hyundai will procure batteries from other plants during that time.
But even if the plants slowly return to life, Korean sense of betrayal, and the new vigilance to invest in the US out there, may remain much longer.
