South Korea's foreign minister heads to U.S. to bring back detained Korean nationals
發佈日期: 2025-09-08 19:52
TVB News
South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Hyun is heading to the U.S. He is seeking to resolve the fallout over the detention of hundreds of Korean workers during an immigration raid in the state of Georgia last week.
U.S. federal agents arrested 475 people at Hyundai's car battery plant, including about 300 South Korean workers.
U.S. President Donald Trump said foreign companies need to hire and train American workers and respect immigration laws.
Tracey Furniss reports.
Last Thursday's raid on Hyundai's car battery plant in Ellabell, Georgia was distinct from other recent workplace raids by government agents, as this time the scale was much larger and it took place at a manufacturing site.
Hundreds of federal agents descended on the plant, a joint venture between Hyundai and LG Energy Solution, detaining 475 people of which around 300 were South Korean nationals.
The detention of South Korean nationals also sets the raid apart, as they are rarely caught up in immigration enforcement compared with other nationalities.
The South Korean Prime Minister's Office met Sunday with Presidential Chief-of-Staff Kang Hoon-sik, saying that as soon as administrative procedures are concluded, "a chartered flight will depart to bring our citizen's back,"adding, "Our government will remain vigilant and respond responsibly until all our citizens are returned safely."
This situation comes as Seoul has committed to massive investment plans in the United States.
U.S. President Donald Trump defended the immigration raid on the South Korean automaker's site but suggested it was necessary for the U.S. to bring in foreign experts
to train American workers in some industries.
U.S. President Donald Trump said: "It's a very interesting situation that took place in Georgia. ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) was doing right because they were here illegally. But we do have to work something out where we bring in experts so that our people can be trained so that they can do it themselves.
When they're building batteries, if you don't have people in this country right now that know about batteries, maybe we should help them along and let some people come in and train our people to do, you know, complex things."
