Hyundai raid workers head home: 300 Korean laborers depart from US; Seoul warns investment in America at risk

US authorities have deported more than 300 South Korean laborers detained during an immigration raid at a battery factory under construction on Hyundai’s auto plant site west of Savannah. The raid, conducted last week, led to the arrest of about 475 workers in total.

On Thursday, shortly before noon, a chartered jet carrying the South Korean nationals departed Atlanta for Seoul, officials said.


In preparation for their flight, which is scheduled to arrive in South Korea on Friday afternoon, the workers took a bus earlier in the day from a detention facility in southeast Georgia to Atlanta. 316 Koreans, 10 Chinese, 3 Japanese, and 1 Indonesian were among the captives freed by US officials, according to South Korea's Foreign Ministry.

Folkston, 285 miles (460 kilometers) southeast of Atlanta, was the location of the immigration detention facility where the laborers had been detained.

According to South Korean President Lee Jae Myung, Korean businesses would probably be reluctant to make fresh investments in the United States until the US visa system is improved.

Throughout a press briefing, Lee stated that US and Korean authorities engaged in a back-and-forth debate on whether the detainees needed to be handcuffed throughout their bus ride to Atlanta, which the Koreans "strongly opposed." According to him, there was also discussion about whether they would be deported or depart under "voluntary departure."

US officials began returning the detainees' possessions while those talks were going on. However, Lee claimed that "everything suddenly halted" and that they were informed that this was because of directives from the White House.

"Those who did not want to leave were not required to," he added, adding that President Trump had ordered that the detainees be free to return home. "We were informed that the process was halted and the administrative procedures were modified as a result of that instruction."

Trump has halted the process to hear from South Korea on whether the Koreans should be sent back to South Korea or allowed to stay to continue their work and help train US workers, according to a South Korean Foreign Ministry official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the diplomatic process.

During his press conference, Lee stated that the US offered the detainees the option of remaining or returning home. According to Lee, one South Korean national with family in the United States ultimately decided to remain.