The Jolt: Doug Collins suggests Korean firm, recipient of $300m in tax breaks, is engaged in employment ‘conspiracy’

Shortly after my initial letter, an investigative reporter with Fox 5 Atlanta aired an investigative report which further substantiated my initial understanding that there is a large-scale, ongoing effort to subvert United States immigration laws in an effort to illegally employ Korean foreign nationals at the SK battery factory construction site in Commerce, Georgia.

In Fox 5′s report, they document widespread busing of foreign workers to and from the construction site and short-term housing rentals. When Fox 5 followed these workers as they bused from the construction site to rental housing and attempted to ask them about their presence in the United States, none of the workers were able to respond in English. Since Fox 5s report, I have received information from additional constituents reporting that more than 30 houses have been rented to support this illegal workforce.

If this was not enough to strongly suggest an ongoing conspiracy to subvert the laws of the United States in building the expansion of the SK battery factory using illegal labor from Korea, what I have learned in the short period following the report certainly is.

In early July, local government officials were alerted to unusual commercial traffic to and from a non-operational chicken farm on an otherwise quiet road. Their investigation led to the discovery of over 200 persons, the overwhelming majority of apparent Korean nationality, working in a large-scale effort to train on-the-job welders.

During inspection for apparent permit violations, officials were told that this was a training facility where the apparent Korean nationals were being taught to weld. This facility, which was shut down by local officials [in] early July, was less than five miles from the SK battery factory construction site mentioned in my August 19 letter.

Elected officials have gone above and beyond to encourage SK to bring good paying jobs to Georgia. The state of Georgia generously gave SK over $300 million in tax breaks, grants, and land to encourage them to bring their battery factory to the state, and just recently, myself and a number of lawmakers in the Georgia delegation submitted a letter to the International Trade Commission (ITC) discouraging the ITC from imposing import restrictions — a remedy that would undoubtedly hurt Georgia workers — in response to SKs apparent theft of trade secrets from another South Korean foreign firm.

Now, it appears the jobs SK had promised would employ hardworking Georgians might not even be safe as a result of welding work conducted by apparent novice foreign workers. These illegal and immoral actions are, quite frankly, disgusting and a betrayal to Georgia taxpayers who have invested heavily in SKs development in Jackson County.

On Friday, an SK official was quoted by the Korean Times stating, “We hired those Korean workers because they are specialized in constructing battery factories." Not only is this statement impossible to reconcile with the extensive training operation discovered in early August, but it is legally no excuse for breaking U.S. immigration laws. I implore ICE and CBP to use every resource in your power to investigate SK and their contractors to identify and deport this illegal workforce and hold responsible anyone involved.

I also urge you to suspend visas for any SK employee traveling to Georgia from any part of the world until this matter is resolved. In a confidential addendum to this letter my office will be providing a list of locations where these illegal workers are apparently living as well as the location of the off-site welding operation...

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