US Immigration Crackdown Leaves South Korea Shocked, Outraged
TEHRAN (Tasnim) - A US immigration raid on a Hyundai-LG factory in Georgia, which saw the arrest of hundreds of South Korean workers, has sparked outrage in Seoul, with officials denouncing Washington’s actions as humiliating and damaging to bilateral ties.
South Korea completed talks with Washington on Sunday for the release of its citizens detained in the raid, a presidential official said.
Kang Hun-sik, Presidential Chief of Staff, told state television that a plane was ready to bring back the workers once administrative procedures were finalized.
The US Department of Homeland Security carried out what it called the largest single-site enforcement operation in its history, detaining 475 people at the Hyundai-LG construction site near Savannah, Georgia. More than 300 of those arrested were South Korean nationals.
Video released by US authorities showed workers shackled at the wrists, waist and ankles being loaded onto buses, a move Seoul described as “regrettable” and “unacceptable at a critical time.”
First Vice Foreign Minister Park Yoon-joo told US Under Secretary of State Allison Hooker that “the rights and interests of our citizens must not be unfairly infringed upon during US law enforcement.”
He added that such an incident was “especially regrettable when trust and cooperation between our leaders must be maintained.”
The raid came weeks after Presidents Donald Trump and Lee Jae-myung held a summit in Washington, where South Korea committed $350 billion in new investments in the US market.
Seoul newspapers described the crackdown as a “shock” and warned it would chill Korean business activities in the United States.
Foreign Minister Cho Hyun convened an emergency meeting on Saturday and said he was ready to travel to Washington if necessary.
South Korea’s foreign ministry also dispatched diplomats to Georgia to monitor the situation directly.
LG Energy Solution said it suspended US business travel except for client meetings and sent a senior human resources executive to Georgia to push for the workers’ release.
Hyundai announced an internal review of its subcontractors at the site.
Trump defended the operation, calling the detainees “illegal aliens” and insisting that immigration officials were “just doing their job.”
But the mass arrests provoked criticism even inside the United States.
Lawmakers from Georgia and members of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus said they were “deeply alarmed,” warning that the administration’s deportation drive was “ripping apart families, hurting the economy, and undermining trust with global partners.”
Analysts in Seoul said the raid underscored Washington’s contradictory posture, pressing its allies to invest billions while simultaneously humiliating them through heavy-handed enforcement.
