More than 300 South Korean workers who were detained in a large U.S. immigration sweep at a Hyundai‑LG battery factory site in Georgia returned to South Korea on a charter flight Friday and were reunited with family and officials amid public anger over the treatment they received.
The workers were among roughly 475 people arrested during the Sept. 4 raid at the $4.3 billion battery plant under construction on Hyundai Motor’s campus west of Savannah. A Korean Air Boeing 747‑8i carrying 330 people — 316 of them South Korean nationals, plus Chinese, Japanese and Indonesian workers — landed at Incheon International Airport on Sept. 12 after the detainees were released from an immigration detention center in Folkston, Georgia.
South Korean presidential chief of staff Kang Hoon‑sik and other senior officials greeted the arrivals in the airport hall as hundreds of journalists and relatives waited. One man embraced Kang, and families expressed relief after days of limited contact with detained relatives. The South Korean Foreign Ministry asked media to blur workers’ faces in airport photos and video at the request of the returnees.
Relatives said they had little information for days. Hwang In‑song, whose brother was detained, told The Associated Press he had not been able to reach his sibling until a midnight text the previous night confirming he was safe. Choi Yeon‑ju, 64, whose son was among those detained, said her son called briefly after midnight and told the family not to worry. Authorities said the group included a pregnant woman.
U.S. officials said some of those detained had entered the country illegally, while others had overstayed visas or entered on visa waivers that prohibit employment. Video released by U.S. authorities showing some Korean workers shackled at the scene — hands, ankles and waists bound with chains — provoked strong reactions in South Korea, where lawmakers and the public described the footage as humiliating and demanded explanations from both governments.
Seoul and Washington said they had reached an agreement allowing the majority of the detained Koreans to return home. South Korea earlier had pushed to fly them back Thursday, but that plan was paused after the U.S. side raised procedural questions. President Lee Jae‑myung said President Donald Trump had directed that detainees be allowed to return freely and that procedures were altered while the U.S. sought Seoul’s views on whether some Koreans should remain to help train U.S. workers. South Korean officials said one national with relatives in the United States chose to remain there.
The raid has drawn scrutiny not only for the treatment of the detained workers but also for longer‑standing tensions over how South Korean companies send skilled personnel to help set up factories in the United States. The Hyundai‑LG battery project in Ellabell is one of more than 20 major industrial sites being built by South Korean firms across the U.S., including other battery factories, a semiconductor plant in Texas and a shipbuilding project in Philadelphia.
South Korean officials and industry experts have repeatedly urged U.S. authorities to update visa procedures to accommodate the short‑term deployment of technicians and specialists needed to launch complex manufacturing operations. In practice, many companies have relied on short‑term visitor visas or the Electronic System for Travel Authorization for workers performing setup tasks, an arrangement U.S. authorities largely tolerated until the raid.
The detainees had been held at a facility about 285 miles southeast of Atlanta. U.S. immigration officials said the operation targeted violations of immigration law; South Korean officials said they would seek explanations and push for measures to prevent similar incidents. The episode has added strain to alliance ties at a time when both countries are deepening economic and industrial cooperation, and it has prompted calls in Seoul for clearer bilateral arrangements on labor mobility for major infrastructure projects.
South Korean authorities and family members said the return of the detained workers brought immediate relief, but questions remain about the legal and administrative steps that led to the arrests and the handling of foreign workers at major U.S. industrial sites. Both governments indicated they would continue consultations on visa and labor arrangements for future projects, while one South Korean who opted to stay in the United States remains under U.S. jurisdiction.