A South Korean charter plane departed for the United States on Wednesday to bring home hundreds of Korean workers detained in a U.S. immigration enforcement sweep at a battery factory construction site in Georgia, Seoul officials said.
U.S. authorities rounded up 475 workers on Sept. 4 at the plant tied to a joint venture between Hyundai and LG Energy Solution, and more than 300 of those detained are believed to be South Korean nationals. The South Korean government said it reached an agreement with U.S. officials to secure the workers' release and transport them home on a voluntary basis.
South Korea's Foreign Ministry said the aircraft, a Korean Air Boeing 747-8i, took off from Incheon International Airport and that officials had pushed for the charter to depart as early as Wednesday U.S. time. The detained workers have been held at an immigration detention center in Folkston, Georgia; South Korean media reported they would be freed and moved to Atlanta to board the charter on Thursday evening.
Seoul has been negotiating with Washington for "voluntary" departures rather than deportations, which could render the workers ineligible to return to the United States for up to 10 years. South Korean officials have emphasized allowing voluntary departures to minimize long-term penalties for the workers and to preserve business ties.
Video released by U.S. authorities showing some of the detained workers shackled with chains around their hands, ankles and waists provoked shock and anger in South Korea, where the raid has been widely characterized as a national humiliation. The episode has strained relations at a sensitive moment in an alliance that remains central to both countries' strategic interests.
U.S. officials said the detainees included people who had crossed the U.S. border illegally as well as those who entered legally but whose visas had expired or who entered on visa waivers that prohibit employment. South Korean officials and industry experts said many Korean workers were engaged in specialized tasks — installing and servicing equipment for battery manufacturing — that they contend cannot easily be done by U.S. workers trained on short notice.
An Atlanta immigration attorney representing four of the detained South Koreans, Charles Kuck, told The Associated Press that the machines used at the Georgia facility are not manufactured in the United States and that the expertise to install or repair them typically comes from abroad. He estimated training a U.S. worker to perform such work would take three to five years.
The raid was the largest yet by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security as the Biden administration steps up immigration enforcement efforts. The Georgia battery plant is one of more than 20 major industrial projects South Korean companies are building across the United States as part of a broader push to expand manufacturing and investment.
In recent months, Washington and Seoul have been negotiating on trade and investment. Ten days before the raid, South Korean President Lee Jae-myung held a summit in Washington with U.S. President Joe Biden on Aug. 25. In July, South Korea pledged hundreds of billions of dollars in U.S. investments as part of efforts to ease trade tensions and secure tariff agreements.
South Korean industry officials said companies have long depended on short-term visitor visas, such as B-1 and B-2 classifications, and the Electronic System for Travel Authorization, or ESTA, to move technicians and specialists to U.S. sites temporarily. Those practices, they said, had been largely tolerated for years but left workers vulnerable when enforcement intensified.
LG Energy Solution, which employed the majority of the detained workers, instructed its South Korean employees in the U.S. not to report to work until further notice and told those traveling on ESTAs to return to Korea immediately. South Korea's foreign minister, Cho Hyun, met with representatives from major Korean firms operating in the U.S., including Hyundai, LG and Samsung, and said Seoul was in active discussions with U.S. officials and lawmakers about potential legislation to establish a separate visa quota for South Korean professionals.
President Lee said during a Cabinet Council meeting that he felt a "big responsibility" for the incident and expressed hope that South Korean businesses' operations in the U.S. would not be unfairly impeded going forward. He said his government would push to improve systems to prevent similar incidents in close consultation with Washington.
U.S. officials, including President Biden's administration, have defended the enforcement action as consistent with U.S. immigration law. Political leaders in the United States, including President Biden, have said they expect foreign firms to help train U.S. workers where feasible. Former U.S. President Donald Trump, who remains a political figure amid ongoing public debates over immigration, said the workers "were here illegally" and urged that foreign experts be used to train American workers.
Analysts say the episode is unlikely to prompt immediate, large-scale retaliatory measures by Seoul against Washington, given the long-standing security and economic ties between the two allies. Nonetheless, officials and business leaders have warned that the raid could become a persistent source of diplomatic friction as the U.S. intensifies immigration enforcement while seeking foreign investment and expertise.
South Korea has called for a more formal visa mechanism to accommodate skilled workers needed for complex industrial projects. Seoul officials say the demand has been made for years, and they reiterated that discussions with U.S. counterparts will continue to try to reconcile U.S. immigration policies with the practical needs of multinational industrial projects.
The charter flight arrangement reflected immediate crisis management to return detained nationals, while broader negotiations over visa rules and protections for overseas workers will likely continue in coming weeks between Seoul and Washington.