South Korean workers detained in immigration raid leave Atlanta and head home

ATLANTA — A plane carrying more than 300 workers from South Korea who were detained during an immigration raid at a battery factory in Georgia last week left Atlanta shortly before noon Thursday, bound for South Korea.

The workers traveled by bus from a detention center in southeast Georgia to Atlanta earlier in the day for their flight, which is expected to land in South Korea on Friday afternoon. South Korea’s Foreign Ministry said the detainees released by U.S. authorities included 316 Koreans, 10 Chinese nationals, three Japanese nationals and one Indonesian.

The workers were among about 475 people detained during last week’s raid at the battery factory under construction on the campus of Hyundai’s sprawling auto plant west of Savannah. They had been held at an immigration detention center in Folkston, 285 miles (460 kilometers) southeast of Atlanta.

South Korea’s President Lee Jae Myung on Thursday called for improvements to the United States’ visa system, saying Korean companies will likely hesitate to make new investments in the U.S. until that happens.

Lee said during a news conference that Korean and U.S. officials had a back-and-forth discussion over whether the detainees had to be handcuffed while they traveled by bus to Atlanta — something the Koreans “strongly opposed.” He said there was also a debate over whether they would be leaving under “voluntary departure” or deportation.

While those discussions were ongoing, U.S. officials started to return the detainees’ belongings. Then, however, “everything suddenly halted,” Lee said, adding that they were told that was due to instructions from the White House.

“President Trump had directed that the (detainees) should be allowed to return home freely and those who didn’t want to go didn’t have to,” he said. “We were told that, because of that instruction, the process was paused and the administrative procedures were changed accordingly.”

A South Korean Foreign Ministry official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the diplomatic process, said Trump had halted the process to hear from South Korea on whether the Koreans should be allowed to stay to continue their work and help train U.S. workers or should be sent back to South Korea.

Lee said the U.S. gave the detainees a choice between staying and going home. Ultimately, one South Korean national who has relatives in the U.S. chose to stay, Lee said.

The Trump administration’s mass deportation agenda has included a string of workplace raids, but this one stood out for its scope and the fact that the target was a manufacturing site state officials have touted as Georgia’s largest economic development project. Hyundai Motor Group began manufacturing EVs a year ago at the $7.6 billion plant, which employs about 1,200 people.

In a statement Wednesday, Gov. Brian Kemp’s office stressed its “strong relationship with the Republic of Korea and Korean partners like Hyundai, stretching back 40 years to the establishment of Georgia’s trade office in Seoul.”

“We are thankful they are reiterating their commitment to adhere to all state and federal laws, just as we remain committed to not allowing this unfortunate incident to undo the decades of mutually beneficial partnerships we’ve built together,” a spokesperson said.

The detention of South Korean nationals also made the raid unusual as they are not often caught up in immigration enforcement actions.

Video released by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Saturday showed a caravan of vehicles driving up to the site and then federal agents directing workers to line up outside. Some detainees were ordered to put their hands up against a bus as they were frisked and then shackled around their hands, ankles and waist. Others had plastic ties around their wrists as they boarded a Georgia inmate-transfer bus.