Hyundai ICE raid in Georgia
— George Conway 👊🇺🇸🔥 (@gtconway.bsky.social) September 9, 2025 at 1:15 PM
A woman running for Congress in GA called ICE on a Hyundai plant & may have just fractured the U.S. relationship with South Korean companies.
— TizzyEnt (@tizzyent.bsky.social) September 9, 2025 at 12:31 PM
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The consequences of the Hyundai Plant Raid
byu/AEGIS-59 inICE_Raids
South Korea followed US immigration law. The US based Hyundai employers followed US immigration law. The immigrant workers at SC Hyundai plant followed immigration law. And ICE fascists raided them anyway. It was never about “coming here legally.” It was always about advancing white nationalism.
— Qasim Rashid, Esq. (@qasimrashid.com) September 8, 2025 at 10:02 PM
Those Hyundai arrests already sending a chill in foreign companies’ US investment plans. 🤡 @nikkei.com asia.nikkei.com/politics/int…
— Carl Quintanilla (@carlquintanilla.bsky.social) September 8, 2025 at 6:28 PM
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A massive raid by federal agents at a Hyundai electric vehicle battery plant is giving multinational businesses a wake up call on using visa programs to bring employees in for temporary rotations in the US.
— Bloomberg Law (@bloomberglaw.com) September 10, 2025 at 8:30 AM
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Leaked Ice documnt shows worker detained in Hyundai raid had valid visa
At least one of the Korean workers swept up in a massive immigration raid on a Hyundai Motor factory site in Georgia last week was living and working legally in the US, according to an internal federal government document obtained by the Guardian.
Officials then “mandated” that he agree to be removed from the US despite not having violated his visa.
The document shows that immigration officials are aware that someone with a valid visa was among the people arrested during the raid at the Hyundai factory and taken to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) detention for removal proceedings, where the people arrested remained on Tuesday before expected deportation flights back to South Korea.
The document in question reports on the man’s case and was leaked exclusively to the Guardian. It was written by an Ice agent. The Guardian is redacting the identity of the man in question, who arrived in the US in June, because it has not been possible to reach him directly and it is unclear whether he has any legal representation.
The document says that immigration agents from Atlanta “determined that [redacted] entered into the United States in [redacted], with a valid B1/B2 visa and [redacted] was employed at HL-GA Battery Company LLC as a contractor from the South Korean company SFA. From statements made and queries in law enforcement databases, [redacted] has not violated his visa; however, the Atlanta Field Office Director has mandated [redacted] be presented as a Voluntary Departure. [Redacted] has accepted voluntary departure despite not violating his B1/B2 visa requirements.”
The internal file describes “an actual crime”, according to Charles Kuck, an immigration attorney based in Georgia – but with the crime allegedly being committed by the government, not the detainee in question. Kuck, who is representing a number of people arrested during last week’s raid, said it is illegal to detain a valid visa holder in this way.
South Korea is now attempting to bring ALL the detainess home but thwarted by the Trump administration. Maybe Trump is waiting for a bribe
Kim Yong-beom, presidential chief of staff for policy, on Tuesday also disclosed that “(US) law enforcement authorities have their own methods they insist on when it comes to transporting detainees by bus.”
“They insist on certain practices, such as handcuffing detainees again, but we are making every effort in the final administrative negotiations to ensure that such methods are not applied,” Kim said.
“We are working to complete the procedures so that our nationals can safely return in the form of voluntary departure, not deportation, and are striving to conclude this within a timely period — within a day or two.”
Though the South Korean government has referred to the departure of the South Korean detainees as “voluntary departure,” US Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem notably said Monday that the Korean nationals detained in the raid will be “deported.”
The statement on the delay of the departure was announced at around 3:50 p.m. Seoul time, or 2:50 a.m. Georgia time, at the last minute. But The Korea Herald learned that the decision had been made at least a few hours before the public announcement.
The detainees were originally scheduled to be released from detention facilities at around 6 a.m. Wednesday. Most were held at the ICE facility in Folkston, southern Georgia — located 428 kilometers from Atlanta, about a 4 1/2-hour drive to the airport — and roughly 10 women at the nearby Stewart Detention Center.
Since the transfers must occur under the supervision of US immigration authorities, Immigration and Customs Enforcement personnel are expected to board each bus or provide an escort to the airport.
