Alleging “unlawful employment practices and other serious federal crimes”, US immigration authorities raided a factory owned by South Korean automotive giant Hyundai in Ellabell, in the state of Georgia.
Some 475 people, mostly South Korean citizens, were arrested,
This was described by Homeland Security official Steve Schrank as “the largest single-site enforcement operation in the history of homeland security investigations”. He said this was not an immigration operation, but rather “a multi-month criminal investigation where we have developed evidence, conducted interviews, gathered documents and presented that evidence… in order to obtain a judicial search warrant.”
Initial reports suggested that many of those detained were in the country on visitors’ visas, and did not have the right to work.
The detention of citizens of prosperous and pro-US South Korea at a high-tech manufacturing plant – particularly given the incumbent administration’s focus on industrial expansion – has raised eyebrows.
President Donald Trump responded: “They were illegal aliens and ICE was just doing its job.”
On the reaction from South Korea, he said: “Well, we want to get along with other countries, and we want to have a great, stable workforce. And we have, as I understand it, a lot of illegal aliens, some not the best of people, but we had a lot of illegal aliens working there.”
Hyundai said in a statement that it was “closely monitoring the situation and working to understand the specific circumstances.” It added that it understood that none of the detainees were directly employed by the company.
The South Korean government called on the US to remember the considerable contribution its firms made to the US economy and to respect the rights of its citizens: “The economic activities of Korean investment companies and the rights and interests of Korean citizens must not be unfairly infringed upon during US law enforcement operations.”
[Image: https://picryl.com/media]