475 arrested in unprecedented immigration raid at Georgia’s Hyundai EV site
Federal officials announced Friday they detained 475 people at a construction site on the Hyundai Metaplant campus near Savannah during a Thursday operation, the largest single immigration raid in the history of Homeland Security Investigations.
Steven Schrank, special agent in charge of HSI Atlanta, said the arrests stemmed from a monthslong investigation into alleged undocumented and illegal work at a battery plant under construction in Bryan County. The battery factory is part of Hyundai Motor Group’s 3,000-acre Metaplant site, a $12.6 billion project, including the battery facility, that has been touted by Georgia leaders as the largest economic development deal in state history.
“This, in fact, was the largest single site enforcement operation in the history of Homeland Security Investigations across the country,” Schrank said at a Friday morning news conference in Savannah.
The operation included a criminal search warrant and involved the battery factory jointly developed by Korean companies Hyundai and LG Energy Solutions. The raid paused construction of the battery facility, but did not impact operations of the adjacent electric vehicle manufacturing plant that opened in October, according to a Hyundai spokesperson.
Officials for Hyundai, LG and their joint venture said they are cooperating with law enforcement. LG told media outlets that executives and other employees of the Korean company were swept up in the immigration raid.
Schrank confirmed that a “majority” of the 475 arrests were Korean nationals, but further details were not disclosed. Schrank said no charges have been filed as part of the investigation.
While serving the search warrant and collecting evidence as part of a probe into alleged violations of employment laws and other matters, federal agents ascertained that hundreds of individuals on site did not have current lawful status, Schrank said.
“The (arrested) employees worked for a variety of different companies that were on the site. It was not just the parent company, but also subcontractors,” Schrank said. “… We continue to work on the investigation of who exactly worked for what companies.”
The situation prompted concern among South Korea’s political leadership.
“The economic activities of our investment companies and the rights and interests of our citizens must not be unjustly violated during U.S. law enforcement proceedings,” Lee Jaewoong, a spokesperson for South Korea’s Foreign Ministry, said at a Seoul news conference Friday, according to multiple media outlets.
— This is a developing story. Return to AJC.com for updates.
About the Author
Zachary Hansen, a Georgia native, covers economic development and commercial real estate for the AJC. He's been with the newspaper since 2018 and enjoys diving into complex stories that affect people's lives.
