South Korea Wants Workers Affected By Raids Last Week To Return To The US

The immigration raid by the joint US apparatus in Georgia on September 4. (Source: ICE)

JAKARTA - South Korean authorities on Monday are negotiating with the United States to allow the re-entry of hundreds of its citizens who were arrested last week in a US immigration raid on a car battery project and will be repatriated soon.

About 300 South Koreans were among the 475 arrested on Thursday at a project site worth $4.3 billion worked on by Hyundai Motor and LG Energy Solution to produce electric car batteries in Ellabell, Georgia State.

This is law enforcement operations at one of the largest locations in the history of the Department of Homeland Security's investigative operations, and sent a shockwave to South Korea, a US ally that has attempted to finalize a trade deal and agreed in July.

The raid came 10 days after South Korea's new president, Lee Jae-myung, met US President Donald Trump in Washington and both promised closer business ties.

South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Hyun, speaking to reporters before leaving for the US on Monday, called the detention of South Koreans a "critical situation" and said she would work closely with Washington to take steps to prevent similar incidents.

"From the start, we negotiated with the premise that there should be no personal loss (for detained workers)," Foreign Minister Cho told a parliamentary session on Monday.

Seoul said on Sunday discussions to regulate the release of workers, mostly employed by subcontractors, had been largely completed.

Plans are being drafted to fly them home on chartered planes this week, with what a South Korean Foreign Ministry official called a "voluntary departure".

Meanwhile, US Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem said many people detained in the Georgia operation would be deported.

"People in this country illegally need to know right now, today, that they had the opportunity to go home before being detained," Minister Noem told reporters on the sidelines of a ministerial-level meeting in London.

Details of how these workers may violate immigration rules have not been released by the authorities or companies.

However, South Korean lawmakers said on Monday some workers may have violated the 90-day visa-free program limit or a temporary B-1 business visa.

Finance Minister Koo Yun-cheol said he had heard several experts had come from South Korea to help test the factory, which is scheduled to start production in October.

"You need to get a visa to do a trial, but it's very difficult to get an official visa. Time is running out, and I think experts have gone to the United States," he explained.

Seoul itself expressed dissatisfaction with the arrests and the release of public footage showing the operation, which involved armored vehicles and worker delays.

Meanwhile, President Trump, who has stepped up deportations across the country as his government crackdown on illegal immigrants, said last week that he was unaware of the raid. He called those detained "illegal elements".

On Sunday, he asked foreign companies investing in the US to "respect our country's immigration laws", but sound softer.

"Your investment is welcome, and we encourage you to legally bring your very intelligent people, with great technical talent, to build world-class products, and we will allow you to do so quickly and legally," he said at Truth Social.