A South Korean worker who witnessed a massive immigration operation at a car factory in Georgia has told the BBC of panic and confusion as federal agents descended on the site and arrested hundreds.
The man, who asked to remain anonymous, was at the factory jointly owned by Hyundai and LG Energy when agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrested 475 people, including 300 South Korean nationals, with some being led away in chains.
He said he first became aware of the Thursday morning raid when he and his colleagues received a deluge of phone calls from company bosses. Multiple phone lines were ringing and the message was to shut down operations, he said.
As news of the raid spread, panicked family members attempted to contact the workers.
They were detained and they left all their cell phones in the office. They were getting calls, but we couldn't answer because [the office] was locked, he said.
Reportedly, some workers tried to flee the scene, with several jumping into a nearby sewage pond. They were separated into groups based on nationality and visa status before being processed and loaded onto various coaches.
400 state and federal agents gathered outside the $7.6 billion factory complex, which is about half an hour from Savannah, before entering the site around 10:30 am. The complex opened last year and employs workers who assemble electric vehicles. Immigration officials had been investigating alleged illegal employment practices at the electric vehicle battery plant being constructed on the same site.
This operation became the largest single-site immigration enforcement action in the history of Homeland Security investigations, according to officials. Hundreds of individuals who were not legally allowed to work in the U.S. were detained.
ICE agents arrived in armored vehicles, lining up workers outside the factory, some shown chained together as they loaded onto coaches. Images emerged of men attempting to escape into a river.
The anonymous worker expressed sympathy for those detained but acknowledged that such crackdowns were not surprising during the Trump administration. The slogan is America first, and if you work in America legally, you won’t have an issue, he stated.
He opined that the complexities and administrative hurdles of obtaining U.S. visas had led foreign companies to cut corners, potentially leading to reconsiderations of investment strategies in the U.S.
After the raid, Hyundai and LG Energy released a joint statement affirming their cooperation with authorities and reflecting on the pause of construction at the site. Hyundai also noted that, according to their current understanding, none of those detained were directly employed by the company.
ICE confirmed that all 475 detainees were illegally present in the U.S., having entered through various means, some crossing the border illegally while others overstayed visas.
The impact of this raid and the resulting immigration crackdown may loom large over the future of international investment and labor markets, especially among complex projects like the one at the Hyundai-LG factory.
