• Source:JND
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The United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) carried out a dramatic raid on Hyundai Motor and LG Energy Solution’s joint-venture battery plant in Ellabell, Georgia, resulting in the arrest of 475 workers, over 300 of them South Korean nationals. Officials said those detained were working illegally in one of the state’s largest foreign investment projects, a facility touted as central to America’s electric vehicle supply chain.

Video footage released by ICE showed lines of Asian workers in yellow vests, some branded with “Hyundai” and “LG CNS,” shackled and led away by federal agents. The operation unfolded like a scene from a movie, with armed officers storming the facility and ordering workers in hard hats to stand against the walls. Eyewitnesses described the chaos as “a war zone.”

Some workers attempted desperate escapes. According to the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Georgia, several fled into a sewage pond. Federal agents deployed boats to retrieve them, with one individual even trying to overturn a vessel before being subdued. Others scrambled into the plant’s air ducts to avoid capture. One worker told Univision: “We hid ourselves in an air duct and it was really hot. Everyone came out running and told us immigration has arrived.”

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Trump Defends Hyundai Raid

President Donald Trump defended the operation, brushing aside concerns that it might discourage foreign investment. “They were illegal aliens and ICE was just doing its job,” he said. ICE officials emphasised that those on short-term or recreational visas are prohibited from working in the US, arguing the raid was essential to protect American jobs.

The incident has added fresh strain to US-South Korea relations, already tense following Washington’s tariffs on Korean exports. Seoul’s foreign ministry expressed “serious concern,” warning that the rights of its nationals and the economic activities of investors must not be “unjustly infringed.”

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Hyundai Motor Company quickly distanced itself, insisting none of those detained were its direct employees. LG Energy Solution pledged full cooperation with authorities as investigations continue. Meanwhile, members of the Korean community in nearby Savannah have been left stunned. “The community is in shock, scrambling to find legal help and resources,” said James Woo of Asian Americans Advancing Justice.

The plant, hailed by Georgia officials as the state’s biggest economic development project, was intended to anchor the region’s electric vehicle industry.