Foreign firms weighing U.S., Georgia projects chilled by Hyundai ICE raid
Joyson Japheth is one of many international business owners working to establish a presence in the U.S.
He and two other Indian entrepreneurs recently set up a call center company in Georgia, where specialized employees from India will need to travel stateside to train new American hires. But the recent immigration raid on Hyundai’s electric vehicle factory site near Savannah has Japheth questioning whether those training missions would endanger his Indian employees.
“It feels like we’re being targeted, and we do not want that to happen,” he said. “Especially people traveling on a work visa, I don’t know how stable that could turn out to be for us.”
The Sept. 4 Immigration and Customs Enforcement raid set off an international firestorm between the U.S. and South Korea, a top ally, which reacted with anger. It also put into conflict President Donald Trump’s policies on immigration and re-shoring of manufacturing jobs by using tariffs as a cudgel to prompt foreign investment.
“The president said he wants to deport people, but the president has also said he wants to bring manufacturing to the United States,” said Charles Shapiro, a retired ambassador and former president of the World Affairs Council of Atlanta. “So how do you square those two things?”
ICE arrested 475 people, including more than 300 Korean nationals accused of working at the Hyundai site illegally. The raid’s implications have rippled across the wider international business community.
Several foreign companies, diplomats and other stakeholders from various nations told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution they now have to consider the safety of their workers when making American investments.
“This would make you think twice about investing in the United States, that it’s so complicated to bring in these kinds of workers,” Shapiro said.
Homeland Security Investigations, a division of ICE, said the operation included executing a criminal search warrant at the battery factory construction site jointly developed by Korean companies Hyundai Motor Group and LG Energy Solution. The number of arrests was the largest in the history of HSI, which was founded in 2010.
Some have praised the crackdown, saying it protects American worker interests and levels the playing field. But Korean officials have raised concerns about the challenges in getting visas for its specialized workers, saying there are no American peers for this cutting-edge work.
The detained workers were here to help get the battery plant up and running and to train the newly hired workforce on advanced technology.
The U.S. and Korean governments expedited the release of most of the detainees, allowing nearly all of the Korean nationals to fly back to their home country.
The operation paused construction and will delay the factory’s opening by two to three months, Hyundai CEO José Muñoz said. In a Thursday statement, he said Hyundai remains committed to Georgia.
“Georgia’s partnership has been exceptional, and Hyundai’s commitment to this state and its people is stronger than ever,” he said.
LG leadership also said it will continue its U.S. investments, planning to locate half its total global battery cell-making capacity in the states.
“The U.S. is an extremely important market for us,” LG spokesperson Philip Lienert said in an email.
America has historically been seen as a beacon of stability for foreign investment, said Didi Caldwell, president and CEO of consultant group Global Location Strategies. The Hyundai raid undercuts that perception, she said.
“We’re going hat in hand, or perhaps with a cudgel, to countries like South Korea and asking them to invest in the U.S.,” she said. “ … But then (immigration officials) raid the plant and completely stop construction. It just seems counter to what we’re trying to do, which is bring manufacturing to the U.S.”
The Georgia Department of Economic Development, which recruited Hyundai’s Metaplant, said it works hard to maintain good relationships with its foreign partners.
Vexed over visas
Korean companies like Hyundai have built a reputation for building things at lightning speed.
The automaker’s EV factory near Savannah is a prime example. In about two years, the company transformed a 3,000-acre site that looked like the surface of the moon into a fully operational 16 million-square-foot assembly plant.
Jae Kim, president of the Southeast U.S. Korean Chamber of Commerce, said the LG-Hyundai battery plant “was being built with industry pressures” to get it “up and running very quickly.”
“We’re trying to restart the manufacturing renaissance, restart it together in collaboration with our allies,” he said.
Advocates for the detained workers have said the painful episode could have been avoided had the U.S. government made more readily available the necessary work visas. It’s a sentiment echoed by local economic development officials.
“We’ve got to do all we can to fix the visa program,” said Trip Tollison, president and CEO of the Savannah Economic Development Authority.
Tollison’s organization oversees recruitment for four Savannah area counties, which are home to about 70 facilities operated by foreign companies. Nearly a fourth of those are Korean, according to data provided by SEDA.
Kim said battery factories are among the advanced manufacturing facilities the U.S. has been trying to attract domestically for years. The workforce to deliver those desires are almost entirely concentrated in East Asia.
“Foreign direct investment does require a transfer of skills that the U.S. doesn’t have, especially (for something) as sophisticated as a battery plant. Same as semiconductors, biotech,” Kim said. “It’s going to benefit those that work there long term. It’s going to create jobs. It’s going to create more economic opportunity for everyone.”
Tollison echoed that point.
“We’re obviously not working with China on this technology, but certainly South Korea and Japan (are partners),” said Tollison, highlighting the main countries innovating on these technologies. “ … We have to have these workers here. Hopefully they get this fixed, and they get it fixed quickly.”
The Georgia Chamber of Commerce issued a statement after the ICE raid saying it doesn’t expect it to affect the state’s growth prospects “given our unmatched geography, outstanding business climate, and alignment with current federal economic development priorities.”
“We will continue working with our members and partners, including bilateral chambers of commerce, to strengthen Georgia’s position as the number one state in the country to do business,” the Georgia Chamber said.
Broader implications
But foreign officials and business leaders say the raid will impact business investment in the state.
Chibamba Kanyama, Zambia’s ambassador to the U.S., spent Thursday in Atlanta trying to woo Georgia businesses to invest in his country. Though he noted there are not many Zambian companies setting up a presence in the U.S., Kanyama said in general the Trump administration’s immigration policies seem to be undermining its goals to re-shore manufacturing through tariffs.
“We feel as a country that the new measures that are taken, in particular immigration, may have an implication on some of those companies coming here to do business,” Kanyama said.
The news of the raid has reverberated across the globe.
“A number of investors from South Africa that look at Atlanta as an ideal distribution hub for logistics in the U.S have taken a reconsideration of that approach,” said Neil Diamond, president of the South African Chamber of Commerce in the USA.
He said a company that exports shoes to the U.S. was planning to make Atlanta its North American distribution hub, but has since reconsidered. It is now looking at California.
Kristi Brigman, chief economic development officer for the Metro Atlanta Chamber, said foreign investors need to know Atlanta values them as partners.
“Metro Atlanta thrives on global partnerships,” she said. “We welcome international businesses, value their investment and remain committed to helping them succeed here.”
Brigman said a “national conversation” is needed regarding the role of visas in strengthening American manufacturing and competitiveness.
In southern India, a yearslong effort to woo businesses to Georgia has been in jeopardy because of the 50% tariffs the U.S. has imposed on India. But the Hyundai raid has only exacerbated Indian entrepreneurs’ concerns.
Sundaram Venkatapathy, CEO of a garage equipment manufacturer and past president of the Coimbatore District Small Industries Association, was one of the business owners looking to expand his business to Georgia. He’s registered a company in the state and was on the brink of searching for a warehouse, but that plan is now paused.
“We are very discouraged,” Venkatapathy said. “We are just putting everything on hold, and we are going to think again whether whatever we have done is right or wrong.”
About the Authors
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.
Mirtha Donastorg is a reporter on The Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s business team focusing on Black wealth, entrepreneurship, and minority-owned businesses as well as innovation at Atlanta’s HBCUs.
As business team lead, Kelly Yamanouchi edits and writes business stories. She graduated from Harvard and has a master's degree from Northwestern.
