SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea said Sunday it reached a deal with the U.S. for the release of South Korean workers detained in an immigration raid at a Hyundai plant in Georgia.
Presidential chief of staff Kang Hoon-sik announced that South Korea and the U.S. had finalized negotiations on the workers’ release and that some unspecified administrative steps are left to be taken. He said South Korea plans to send a charter plane to bring the workers home as soon as those administrate steps are completed.
South Korea’s Foreign Minister Cho Hyun said Saturday that more than 300 South Koreans were among the 475 people detained.
The operation was the latest a long line of workplace raids conducted as part of the Trump administration’s mass deportation agenda. But the one on Thursday is especially distinct because of its large size and the fact that it targeted a manufacturing site state officials have long called Georgia’s largest economic development project.
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.
Agents focused their operation on an a plant that is still under construction at which Hyundai has partnered with LG Energy Solution to produce batteries that power EVs.
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