A major U.S. immigration raid took place at Hyundai’s $7.6 billion EV manufacturing site in Georgia, detaining 475 workers, over 300 of them South Korean nationals. This marks the largest single-site enforcement operation in Homeland Security Investigations’ history.
The raid followed a months-long probe into illegal hiring at Hyundai’s EV plant and the adjacent Hyundai–LG battery facility. While many South Koreans at the site held valid H-1B visas, Homeland Security Investigations’ Georgia chief, Steven Schrank, said the 475 people arrested were those “illegally present in the United States, or in violation of their presence in the United States, working unlawfully.”
Authorities reported that the group included individuals who had crossed the border illegally, overstayed visas, or violated visa waiver rules, with many using fraudulent documents to obtain jobs.
Hyundai is trying to distance itself from guilt. Based on Hyundai’s statement, “none of those detained is directly employed by Hyundai Motor Company,” suggesting they were contractors or subcontractors working on the battery plant construction.
The operation drew mixed reactions. Georgia officials stressed that laws must be upheld, while advocacy groups condemned the raid as “unacceptable.” Local residents voiced economic worries and frustration that few of the plant’s jobs had gone to community members.
The South Korean government responded with “concern and regret,” sending diplomats and warning that its citizens’ rights must not be infringed. Their Foreign Ministry stating that “The business activities of our investors and the rights of our nationals must not be unjustly infringed.”
Yet under South Korean law, Americans face strict visa and work permit requirements, with enforcement that has often been far harsher than in the United States. In 2017, immigration officials raided international schools in Seoul, including Canadian British Columbia International School and Westminster Canadian Academy, where fourteen teachers at CBIS alone were deported for visa violations.
South Korea has long employed aggressive tactics such as undercover officers posing as students to entrap foreign teachers, searching commuters on the subway, and deporting people for carrying ESL textbooks without a work visa. In 2018, the government ordered all undocumented workers to leave within six months or face 10-year bans. Since the early 2000s, authorities have systematically arrested, detained, and deported irregular migrants, with the crackdown only intensifying in recent years.
Georgia Republican congressional candidate Tori Branum was the raid’s most vocal supporter, even claiming credit for triggering it. “How do I feel about it? Good,” she told Rolling Stone. “This is what I voted for, to get rid of a lot of illegals, and what I voted for is happening.”
Branum argued that companies exploit undocumented labor to cut costs and insisted that jobs should go to Georgia residents, citing one American who said he worked alongside Spanish-speaking undocumented workers and even had video evidence.
Federal officials echoed that message. Steven Schrank, Homeland Security Investigations’ special agent in Georgia, said the operation showed a commitment to protecting jobs for Americans, ensuring fair competition, and preventing worker exploitation. He stressed that foreign companies are welcome to invest and bring in staff for projects, but only through legal channels.
Meanwhile, critics online demanded accountability from Georgia Republicans, questioning why the state offered Hyundai $2.1 billion in incentives when the company allegedly employed hundreds of undocumented workers. South Korea, for its part, expressed “concern” over the raid and the treatment of its nationals.
Although those arrested were guilty and Hyundai likely broke U.S. law by hiring them, liberal groups and Democrats sharply criticized the raid.
Yvonne Brooks, president of the Georgia AFL-CIO, called it “the latest in an ongoing campaign of harassment” against immigrant workers, saying arrests only spread fear, disrupt families, and burden coworkers. Michelle Lapointe, legal director at the American Immigration Council, argued the raid “does nothing to fix the problems in our broken immigration system,” pointing instead to the lack of legal pathways for workers.
Spreading fear among criminals is called deterrence, and it’s working. Large numbers of illegals are accepting the White House’s offer of self-deportation, while illegal entries at the southern border have dropped by 95 percent.
This decline is not only the result of stronger security but also because fewer people are even attempting to cross. It’s clear that disincentivizing illegal immigration has gone a long way toward ending it.
Her colleague Nan Wu added that immigrant labor is essential, making up nearly 6 percent of Georgia’s manufacturing workforce, and called the focus on raids “cruel, wasteful, and deeply shortsighted.”
As a PhD economist, I would point out that President Trump has just solved Georgia’s labor problem. Illegal immigrants no longer make up 6 percent of the state’s manufacturing workforce.
Democratic Party leaders joined the criticism. Georgia Democratic chairman Charlie Bailey denounced the raid as a politically motivated stunt, accusing the Trump administration of targeting hardworking families instead of violent criminals and warning that such tactics damage communities, businesses, and livelihoods across the state.
It is bad enough that Democrats defend illegal immigration and even claim undocumented workers have a “right” to jobs in the U.S., but Charlie Bailey is supposed to represent Georgia workers, not illegal aliens. Democrats seem to put the interests of illegals above those of their own constituents. In a sane world, no one would vote for that, yet across the nation protests, sometimes violent, continue against ICE arrests and deportations.
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