In a large-scale immigration enforcement raid at a huge Hyundai facility in Georgia on Thursday, 475 immigrants suspected of living and working in the U.S. illegally were detained, federal authorities announced.
Steven Schrank, the special agent in charge of Homeland Security Investigations in Georgia, told reporters Friday that the majority of those detained were Korean nationals but he didn’t know exactly how many. They worked for a variety of different companies at the site, including subcontractors, he said.
No criminal charges were announced during Friday’s news conference. The sweep was conducted as part of a monthslong investigation into allegations of unlawful employment practices and other federal crimes, Schrank said. He described Thursday’s raid as the largest enforcement operation at a single site in the history of Homeland Security Investigations, which is a unit of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
“This operation underscores our commitment to protecting jobs for Georgians and Americans, ensuring a level playing field for businesses that comply with the law, safeguarding the integrity of our economy and protecting workers from exploitation,” Schrank said.
Some of those detained Thursday allegedly entered the U.S. illegally and others were accused of overstaying their visas or violating visa waivers by working, Schrank said. Most of the detainees were taken to an ICE facility in Folkston, Georgia, near the Florida-Georgia state line.
“They will be moved based on their individual circumstances beyond that,” Schrank said.
The president of Georgia’s chapter of the AFL-CIO called the raid politically motivated and said ICE has been escalating its presence at workplaces across the state.
“This raid is the latest in an ongoing campaign of harassment that has targeted immigrant Georgians as they try to earn an honest living,” Yvonne Brooks said in a statement. “Arresting and detaining workers, who are exploited every day and risk their lives every day on the job, creates an atmosphere of fear that terrorizes workers and their families and increases the workload burden on their coworkers.”
The operation involved law enforcement agents from multiple federal agencies, including ICE; the Border Patrol; the FBI; the Drug Enforcement Administration; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; and the IRS, underscoring the government-wide nature of the Trump administration’s crackdown on illegal immigration.
Earlier, the Atlanta office of the ATF had said 450 people were detained in a post on social media, which included pictures from the operation.
The sweep targeted one of Georgia’s largest and most high-profile manufacturing sites, touted by Gov. Brian Kemp and other officials as the biggest economic development project in the state’s history. Hyundai Motor Group, South Korea’s biggest automaker, began manufacturing electric vehicles a year ago at the $7.6 billion plant, which employs about 1,200 people, and has partnered with LG Energy Solution to build an adjacent battery plant, slated to open next year. The search shut down construction on the battery plant.
In a statement to The Associated Press, LG said it was “closely monitoring the situation and gathering all relevant details.” It said it couldn’t immediately confirm how many of its employees or Hyundai workers had been detained.
“Our top priority is always ensuring the safety and well-being of our employees and partners. We will fully cooperate with the relevant authorities,” the company said.
ICE spokesman Lindsay Williams confirmed that federal authorities conducted an enforcement operation at the 3,000-acre site west of Savannah. He said agents were focused on the construction site for the battery plant.
The South Korean Foreign Ministry said in a statement that it was dispatching officials to the site and urged the U.S. Embassy in Seoul “to exercise extreme caution to ensure that the legitimate rights and interests of Korean citizens are not infringed upon.”
“The economic activities of Korean investment companies and the rights and interests of Korean citizens must not be unfairly infringed upon during U.S. law enforcement operations,” the Foreign Ministry said.
Georgia State Patrol troopers blocked roads to the Hyundai site. The Georgia Department of Public Safety confirmed they were dispatched to assist federal authorities.
Video posted to social media Thursday showed workers in yellow safety vests lined up as a man wearing a face mask and a tactical vest with the letters HSI, which stands for Homeland Security Investigations, tells them: “We’re Homeland Security. We have a search warrant for the whole site.”
“We need construction to cease immediately,” the man says. “We need all work to end on the site right now.”
The Trump administration has undertaken sweeping ICE operations as part of a mass deportation agenda. Immigration officers have raided farms, construction sites, restaurants and auto repair shops.
The Pew Research Center, citing preliminary Census Bureau data, says the U.S. labor force lost more than 1.2 million immigrants from January through July. That includes people who are in the country illegally as well as legal residents.
Hyundai and LG’s battery joint venture, HL-GA Battery Company, said in a statement that it’s “cooperating fully with the appropriate authorities” and paused construction of the battery site to assist their work.
Operations at Hyundai’s EV manufacturing plant weren’t interrupted, said plant spokesperson Bianca Johnson.
“This did not impact people getting to work,” Johnson said in an email. “Production and normal office hours had already begun for the day” when authorities shut down access.
