Monday 15 / September / 2025
Seoul: South Korea will look at possible human rights violations against Korean nationals working for a Hyundai factory in the state of Georgia, Seoul's presidential spokesperson said on Monday.
More than 300 South Korean citizens were held for about a week, before being discharged and making a return home later.
As part of the raid — the largest of its kind since US President Donald Trump's crackdown on migrants — Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials arrested some 475 factory workers, most of them from South Korea, allegedly due to overstaying their visas or holding permits that didn't allow them to perform manual labour.
Footage of the arrests resulted in criticism in South Korea, with Seoul repatriating the workers almost a week after their arrest, and South Korean President Lee Jae Myung saying the arrests could discourage future investment in the US.
South Korea's trade unions demanded an official apology from Trump for the arrests. The incident prompted outrage across the country, particularly after Seoul promised to make major investments in the US in July to avoid massive tariffs threatened by Trump.
How did President Trump react?
President Trump said he doesn't want to "frighten off" investors, and that foreign workers sent to the US are "welcome."
"I don't want to frighten off or disincentivise investment," the US leader posted on his Truth Social account, adding the circumstances for temporarily allowing foreign experts in the US to support the development of "extremely complex products" such as chips, semiconductors, computers and trains.
"We welcome (foreign experts), we welcome their employees, and we are willing to proudly say we will learn from them, and do even better than then at their own 'game' sometime in the not too distant future," Trump said, without pointing to specific policy changes that would make the US a less intimidating place for foreign workers.
