ERABEL, Ga. (AP) – Immigration officials said Friday that they had detained 475 people, most of them Korean citizens. Hundreds of federal governments have attacked A vast manufacturing site in Georgia where Korean car manufacturer Hyundai makes electric vehicles.
Lead Georgia agent in the Homeland Security Investigation, Stephen Schrank, said at a press conference Friday the attack was the result of a months-long investigation into allegations of illegal employment at the site and was the “largest single-site enforcement project” in the agency’s two-year history.
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RAID on Thursday targeted one of Georgia’s largest and most popular manufacturing sites. This was a year ago when Hyundai Motor Group began manufacturing electric vehicles at its $7.6 billion factory. The site employs around 1,200 people in an area about 25 miles (40 kilometers) west of Savanna, where the bedroom community bleeds on the farm. Gov. Brian Kemp and other officials are promoting it as the state’s biggest economic development project.
Agents focused operations on an adjacent factory under construction where Hyundai is partnering with LG Energy Solutions. Produces batteries That power EV.
AP Audio: Homeland Security Officer says 475 people were detained during an immigration attack in Georgia
At a press conference, Stephen Schrank, a special agent in charge of the Homeland Security Investigation, said the migrant attacks under the Hyundai Project detained hundreds of people.
Court records filed this week showed that prosecutors didn’t know who hired what they called “hundreds of illegal aliens.” “The identity of the actual company or contractor employing illegal foreigners is currently unknown,” the U.S. Lawyer’s Office wrote in a court application Thursday.
South Korean government expresses concern
The South Korean government has expressed “concerns and regrets” about the operation to target citizens.
Koreans are rarely involved in immigration enforcement compared to other nationalities. According to immigration and customs enforcement, out of the 270,000+ removals of all nationalities on September 30, 2024, only 46 Koreans were deported in the 12 months ended September 30, 2024.
“Our investors’ business activities and citizens’ rights should not be unfairly violated during the course of US law enforcement,” South Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman Lee Jaewoong said in a statement aired from Seoul.
Lee said the department plans to send diplomats from the Washington embassy to the Atlanta consulate to the scene and set up an on-site response team.
Immigration attorney Charles Kak said two of his clients in custody arrived from South Korea under a visa waiver program that allowed them to travel for tourism and business to stay within 90 days without obtaining a visa.
One of his clients was in the US for several weeks, while the other was in the country for about 45 days, he said. He didn’t provide details about the type of work they were doing, but he said they were planning to go home soon.
Schrank told reporters in Savannah that some of the detained workers illegally crossed the US border, while others legally entered the country, but either expired their visas or entered a visa exemption that barred them from working. He said some of the detained people worked for battery makers, while others were employed by construction sites contractors and subcontractors.
Schrankn didn’t know exactly that out of the 475 detained people, several were Korean citizens, but he said they had a majority. No one has been charged with a crime yet, he said, but the investigation is ongoing.
“This wasn’t an immigration operation where agents entered the property, cut people off and put them on a bus,” Schrankn said. “It was a months-long criminal investigation where evidence was developed, interviews were conducted, documents were collected, and evidence was presented to court to obtain a judicial search warrant.”
He said most detainees were taken to the immigration detention center in Folkestone, Georgia, near Rhine, Florida.
The Trump administration has wiped out ice operations
President Donald Trump’s administration A large-scale deportation agenda. Immigration officers have it The attacked farmconstruction sites, restaurants, auto repair shops.
Pew Research Center says the US workforce has lost more than that, citing preliminary Census Bureau data 1.2 million immigrants From January to July. That includes people who are illegally in the country as well as legal residents.
Georgia Democrats condemned the attack on Friday, calling it a “politically motivated terror tactic designed to terrorize those who work hard for a living, drive the economy and contribute to Georgia’s community.”
Kemp and other Georgia Republican officials courted Hyundai and celebrated the opening of the EV plant, but issued a statement on Friday saying that all employers in the state are expected to follow the law.
The Hyundai site is located on 3,000 acres (1,214 hectares) in a largely rural area of Brian County, and brings together workers from several surrounding counties and communities, including the Savannah.
Tanya Cox, a resident of Erabell, who lives within a mile of the Hyundai site, said she has no malicious intentions towards Korean citizens or other migrant workers. However, few neighbours were employed there, and she felt that more construction work should go to locals at the battery factory.
“I don’t know how they brought so much work to our community and nearby communities,” Cox said. “We were hearing birds crying around here and the life of animals, and now we can hear plants as they are fully advanced at night.”
Hyundai began production of electric vehicles on its website last September. A few months later, Hyundai Motor Group executive executive Yui Sung Chong praised the president for the company’s decision to create more American jobs by building an EV factory in Georgia during his White House appearance with Trump.
“Our decision to invest in Savannah, Georgia, created over 8,500 American jobs and was launched during a meeting with President Trump in Seoul in 2019,” Chong said at an event in March.
Battery plant scheduled to open next year
The battery plant operated by HL-GA Battery Co., a joint venture between Hyundai and LG Energy Solutions, is scheduled to open next year.
In an affidavit related to the search warrant, the agent said he wanted employment records for current and former workers. Personnel files; pay information. Bank account information; time cards; workers’ videos and photos. and immigration documents. Social Security cards, visas, passports and birth certificates were also targeted. The agents also sought records regarding ownership and management of several construction companies and contractors designated in the search warrant material.
The document contained names and photos of four people identified as “target persons” to be searched, but there was no further information about them.
In a statement to the Associated Press, LG said it would “continue to monitor the situation and collect all relevant details.” He said he could not immediately confirm how many employees or modern workers have been detained.
Plant spokesperson Bianca Johnson said operations at Hyundai’s EV manufacturing plant were not interrupted by the attack. The Hyundai Motor Company said in a statement Friday that it was “working to understand the specific circumstances” of the attack and detention.
“As of today, we understand that none of the detained people have been directly employed by the Hyundai Motor Company,” the company’s statement said.
HL-GA Battery Co. did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Friday. In a statement Thursday, the company said it was “completely working with the appropriate authorities.”
Those arrested Thursday, fighting deportation, could be taken into custody when their cases pass immigration court. The number of people in ice detention exceeded 60,000 in August, a record high.
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Associated Press journalist Kim Tong-Hyung reported from Seoul, South Korea. Jeff Martin of Marietta, Georgia. Jeff Amy of Atlanta. Mike Schneider of Orlando, Florida contributed.
