President Donald Trump’s efforts to attract foreign investment to revive U.S. manufacturing have collided with his administration’s aggressive immigration enforcement after federal agents detained more than 300 South Korean workers at a large Hyundai battery plant in Georgia.
The raid, which produced video showing some detainees shackled, prompted warnings from South Korean President Lee Jae Myung that companies in his country may hesitate to accept Trump’s invitation to invest in the United States if technicians and other skilled personnel cannot be assured of timely visas and safe entry.
U.S. authorities said the workers were “unlawfully working” at the Georgia manufacturing site, which state officials have called the state’s largest economic development project. Lawyers for some of the detainees dispute that characterization. Charles Kuck, who represents several of the South Koreans, said the “vast majority” were performing work authorized under a visa program.
The clash has raised concern among immigration experts, business leaders and diplomats who say it could chill the very foreign direct investment the administration is courting. South Korea pledged $350 billion in U.S. investment when the two countries announced a trade deal in July, and already was a top investor, ranking 12th worldwide last year with $93 billion in U.S. investment, according to the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis.
"If the U.S. can't promptly issue visas to the technicians and other skilled workers needed to launch plants, then establishing a local factory in the United States will either come with severe disadvantages or become very difficult for our companies," Lee said, according to a transcribed statement. "They will wonder whether they should even do it."
The episode underscores a policy tension in the Trump agenda: using tariffs and the prospect of placing plants in the United States as leverage to bring manufacturing back home, while enforcing immigration rules that can make it difficult for foreign firms to temporarily transfer essential expertise. The administration has threatened and applied high tariffs — including a 15% levy on South Korean products — but has said companies can avoid such penalties by producing in the U.S.
White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said the administration would pursue both aims. "President Trump will continue delivering on his promise to make the United States the best place in the world to do business, while also enforcing federal immigration laws," she said. The president added in remarks that foreign investors should “LEGALLY bring your very smart people,” and pledged to "make it quickly and legally possible for you to do so."
Immigration lawyers and policy academics said the U.S. visa system is poorly suited to the short-term, specialized movement of technical personnel that typically accompanies the opening of overseas-owned factories. Kevin Miner, an immigration lawyer in Atlanta, noted that many work visa categories are limited, seasonal, or run through lotteries. Julia Gelatt of the Migration Policy Institute said the current system "does not envision this kind of scenario." Lee Branstetter, an economist at Carnegie Mellon University who has studied foreign automakers in the United States, said it has been standard practice for companies to send technicians from home countries to set up operations and train U.S. workers.
Critics of the raid characterized it as unnecessary and performative. Ben Armstrong of MIT's Industrial Performance Center called the action "really baffling," saying the presence of the workers should not have been a surprise. Retired immigration lawyer Dan Kowalski said immigration officials could have audited documents without staging a dramatic roundup, and that the use of shackles looked intended for photo opportunities.
U.S. and South Korean officials have sought to contain the diplomatic fallout. After meeting with Secretary of State Marco Rubio, South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Hyun said Washington and Seoul agreed to create a joint working group to discuss a potential new visa category to facilitate the temporary transfer of personnel needed to open and operate foreign-owned plants. Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau planned to visit Seoul this weekend.
Analysts said resolving the mismatch will require both policy changes and clearer enforcement guidelines. "The goal should be to make foreign direct investment as streamlined as possible," Armstrong said, arguing that streamlined procedures would better align immigration practice with industrial policy goals. Experts also noted that U.S. companies regularly move staff overseas for similar purposes.
For now, the raid has left South Korean executives and government officials uneasy about investing in projects that depend on timely, short-term transfers of specialized workers. The administration faces the task of reassuring allies and investors while maintaining domestic priorities on immigration enforcement, even as those objectives increasingly intersect at large manufacturing projects in the United States.