SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea on Friday expressed “concern and regret” over a major U.S. immigration raid at a sprawling Georgia site where South Korean auto company Hyundai manufactures electric vehicles.
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South Korean Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lee Jaewoong described the number of detained South Koreans as “large” though he did not provide an exact figure.
His ministry would not confirm or deny South Korean media reports saying that about 300 South Koreans were among some 450 people who were detained in Georgia on Thursday.
Hyundai’s South Korean office didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
Thursday’s raid targeted one of Georgia’s largest and most high-profile manufacturing sites, touted by the governor and other officials as the largest economic development project in the state’s history. Hyundai Motor Group, South Korea’s biggest automaker, began manufacturing EVs 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.
ICE spokesman Lindsay Williams confirmed that federal authorities conducted an enforcement operation at the 3,000-acre (1,214-hectare) site west of Savannah, Georgia. He said agents were focused on the construction site for the battery plant.
Today, @ATFAtlanta joined HSI, FBI, DEA, ICE, GSP and other agencies in a major immigration enforcement operation at the Hyundai mega site battery plant in Bryan County, GA, leading to the apprehension of ~450 unlawful aliens, emphasizing our commitment to community safety. #ATF pic.twitter.com/su6raLrLu6
— ATF Atlanta (@ATFAtlanta) September 4, 2025
In a televised statement, Lee said the ministry is taking active measures to address the case, dispatching diplomats from its embassy in Washington and consulate in Atlanta to the site, and planning to form an on-site response team centered on the local mission.
“The business activities of our investors and the rights of our nationals must not be unjustly infringed in the process of U.S. law enforcement,” Lee said.
The Department of Homeland Security said in a statement that agents executed a search warrant “as part of an ongoing criminal investigation into allegations of unlawful employment practices and other serious federal crimes.”
It did not say whether anyone was detained or arrested.
President Donald Trump’s 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.
Who cares what the South Koreans think about the ICE raid, at one of their USA plants? They can move their auto plant back to South Korea, if they don’t like it, and take their illegal workers with them. South Korea has been ripping off the USA, on American goods, with very high tariffs, for decades. This is in spite of the fact that the USA provides an umbrella of protection for the South Koreans (45,000 American troops are stationed there) against North Korea and China. In addition, nearly 40,000 American soldiers made the ultimate sacrifice for the freedom of South Korea, during the Korean War. One would think that they would show a little gratitude.
So the 450 have been arrested, how about the management of the Hyundai plant? There are laws against hiring undocumented labor, but why aren’t those laws enforced? Maybe if a few plant managers found themselves locked up for five or ten years in a federal pen these sorts of raids will become less frequent.
Why are they so concerned can American it Canadian come to South Korea and just start working and living there ? No country but the USA had allowed this to happen