Workers from South Korea held during a large immigration raid at a Hyundai plant in Georgia will soon return home on a chartered flight, according to President Lee Jae-myung’s office announcement on Sunday.
Federal and immigration officials arrested 475 individuals, predominantly South Korean nationals, on Thursday while carrying out a judicial search warrant amid a criminal investigation into suspected illegal hiring practices at the facility.
“The negotiations for releasing the detained workers have been finalized,” a spokesperson for the president declared on Sunday. “After completing the necessary procedures, our citizens will be flown back on the chartered plane.”
U.S. officials were not immediately available for comment.
The incident strained ties with South Korea, the world’s 10th-largest economy and a key U.S. ally in east Asia.
The raid was the largest single-site enforcement action ever taken by the Department of Homeland Security, and it marked an intensification of the Trump administration’s ongoing crackdown on immigration.
Numerous agents from Homeland Security Investigations, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and other federal bodies arrived Thursday at the Ellabell location where Hyundai and LG Energy Solution are constructing a battery plant adjacent to their electric vehicle manufacturing site.
