A protest banner depicting President Donald Trump at South Korea’s Incheon International Airport after a plane touchdown embracing hundreds of Korean workers detained as part of a US immigration attack at the Hyundai LG factory in Georgia on September 12, 2025.
Anthony Wallace | AFP | Getty Images
The White House on Monday moved to limit the fallout from an immigration attack at a South Korean-owned battery factory in Georgia on September 4th.
Georgia facilities run by Hyundai Motor Group And at LG Energy Solutions, 475 workers were arrested on allegations that they were in the US illegally or without a proper work permit, and hundreds of detained Koreans were sent home on Thursday.
The attack is part of a broader deportation drive by the Trump administration, and the White House describes it as the centre of President Donald Trump’s campaign promise. Stephen Miller, the White House vice-Chief of Staff and Homeland Security Advisor, pushed for the arrests of 3,000 people a day.
Amidst backlash and concerns over how the attacks disrupt efforts to bring manufacturing back to the US, Trump stressed in his post on True Social Monday that foreign workers are the country’s “welcome.”
Trump said he hopes foreign companies will build complex products, machinery and various other “things” to train skilled employees in the domestic workforce, but he said those foreign workers are expected to eventually return home.
“If we don’t do this, all of that massive investments will never come in the first place… I don’t want to scare or abolish investments in America by outside countries and businesses,” Trump said.
Meanwhile, US diplomat Christopher Landau expressed regret over the migrant attacks in a weekend meeting with his Korean counterpart, suggesting that the event could be used as a turning point to strengthen bilateral relations, according to the South Korean Foreign Ministry.
Landau also said South Korean workers would not face any disadvantage when re-entering the US, and Washington would try to prevent similar incidents.
And more fallout?
In addition to Washington’s reconciliatory statement, Landau said in a post on X that the US State Department “ensures that (Koreans) have the necessary and appropriate visas to comply with our laws.”
South Korea’s state media reported that Washington agreed to establish a new “visa working group” for the country, and the debate was said to include Seoul’s desire for the allocation of another US visa for workers.
Currently, the US allows employers to temporarily hire foreign workers in “professionals” under the H-1B visa program, but the system is highly selective due to the annual cap and lottery system.
A spokesman for the South Korean president also told local media that Seoul is conducting a more thorough review to determine whether human rights violations occurred during US immigration enforcement at a battery factory in Georgia.
U.S. government officials said hundreds of workers detained at the facility were illegally staying in the country.
Experts told CNBC that immigration action, the single largest enforcement project in the Department of Homeland Security history, could lead to other foreign companies reassessing the workforce in the United States.
LG Energy Solution told CNBC last week that the start of the Georgia EV battery plant has been postponed from 2025 to 2026. However, the company argued that the decision was not related to recent incidents but to external factors across the market.
Many other Korean tech giants are investing billions in US facilities as part of a repurchase effort, including semiconductor companies. Samsung Electronics and Sk Hynix.
South Korean President Lee Jae Myung called the attack “confusing” and added that it would discourage future investment in the US.
