ICE Raid at Hyundai-LG Battery Facility Near Savannah Sweeps Up Nearly 500 Workers 

An Immigration and Customs Enforcement raid on the mega site home to Hyundai Motor’s electric-vehicle factory in Bryan County Thursday resulted in the arrest of nearly 500 people accused of working in the U.S. illegally. 

ICE officials said the operation, its largest-ever single-site raid, was just the latest step in a “multi-month” investigation into illicit hiring on the site, particularly by the contractors helping build the joint-venture battery facility with LG.

“This is all in furtherance of the ongoing investigation where we are looking at employment practices,” said Steven Schrank, special agent in charge of Homeland Security Investigations in Georgia and Alabama.

The agency obtained a judicial search warrant and executed it Thursday, collecting material that it believes will provide deeper insight into alleged abuses of the visa system by a web of subcontractors providing services and equipment to the Korean conglomerates. 

While no criminal charges were announced this week, Mr. Schrank stressed that “this is an ongoing matter.”

Hyundai reportedly told news sources that none of its direct hires were detained in the operation and that the operations at its main electric-vehicle plant were not interrupted. 

Each person placed into ICE custody was interviewed and had their documents reviewed by agents and attorneys before being determined to be in the U.S. without authorization, Mr. Schrank said at a news conference Friday.  

Some had entered the U.S. illegally; others had overstayed visas. Still others entered on otherwise legitimate visitor visas that Mr. Schrank said didn’t give them the right to work. 

“We welcome all companies who want to invest in the U.S., and if they need to bring workers in for building or other projects, that’s fine — but they need to do it the legal way,” Mr. Schrank said in a Homeland Security Investigations statement.

The majority of those detained were South Korean nationals, with the BBC and other news sources putting the number of Koreans affected at 300. 

South Korea dispatched diplomats from Washington and from the Consulate General of Korea in Atlanta to set up a response unit in southeast Georgia, as detainees were taken to Folkston Detention Center to await removal. 

“The economic activities of our companies investing in the U.S. and the rights and interests of our nationals must not be unfairly violated,” Korean foreign ministry spokesperson Lee Jae-woong said in a press briefing Friday, according to Capitol Beat. 

The nearly $5 billion battery plant is being constructed through a partnership between Hyundai and LG Energy Solution, which said Friday it could not determine yet how many of its employees were among the 475 workers swept up. 

The battery facility is located on the same 2,900-acre Bryan County site that wooed Hyundai’s electric vehicle factory. Hyundai has yet another battery plant in the works in Cartersville with SK Battery America, which had its own run-ins with immigration and customs authorities in the process of building its $2.6 billion battery plant in Commerce. 

Korean manufacturers often use networks of construction and staffing contractors in the process of setting up and running their operations in the United States. 

The practice has backfired before, with Hyundai and Kia accused of working with companies that brought in Mexican engineers to do menial tasks that were not in line with their visa staus.

SK was also accused of bringing in workers to complete tasks like welding, which is not permissible under visa rules that prohibit inbound business travelers from taking jobs Americans can perform.

South Korea is one of 42 countries whose nationals are allowed into the United States for business or tourism for up to 90 days under the Visa-Waiver Program. Travelers still must fill out an Electronic System for Travel Authorization application, and those coming for business are allowed to attend conferences and conduct meetings. 

Most other activities require a visa authorizing foreign nationals to work in the U.S., but generally, when machinery and equipment is manufactured outside the U.S., the manufacturer may send foreign nationals with specialized knowledge to the US under ESTA, the visa waiver program, or under B business visitor status to install, repair, maintain, test or troubleshoot the equipment.

Teri Simmons, who leads the global mobility practice at Arnall Golden Gregory LLP, says it’s possible some of those detained may fall under this category, as long as they were truthful with Customs and Border Protection entering the U.S. and were admitted under a “commercial exception.”

But either way, she said, the incident is a warning for companies sending workers to the U.S. that they should have proper documentation lined up. 

“While we do not yet know why ICE elected to raid the Hyundai construction site or detain the professionals on the site, we do know that the Trump administration has zero tolerance for anyone working without explicit authorization,” Ms. Simmons said. “Employers must be diligent to ensure that foreign nationals traveling to the U.S comply with all immigration laws and secure proper work visas when required.”

It remains to be seen how the action could affect appetite for Korean investment in the U.S., particularly in the Southeast, which has seen a boom in car and battery factories and their related suppliers.

President Trump recently hosted South Korean President Lee Jae Myung at the White House on the heels of a deal to cap tariffs on Korean goods at 15 percent, partly exchange for $350 billion in Korean energy purchases and investment in strategic sectors, including shipbuilding. 

Mr. Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act also gutted clean-energy incentives that were helping Korean investors in Georgia offset the costs of bringing supply chains to the United States.

Hyundai’s so-called Metaplant site, a $7.6 billion investment including the LG joint venture battery plant, has been touted as the largest in the state’s history. 

Just days before the ICE raid at Hyundai, Gov. Brian Kemp’s office announced a Korean supplier of rare-earth magnets would put a new facility in Columbus, investing $223 million and hiring more than 500. 

Mr. Kemp said in a statement that investors are expected to follow local laws.