Korean Humiliation

Companies around the world are learning a lesson en masse: Any deal you strike with US President Donald Trump’s government comes with a giant asterisk. 

Because you might believe you’re cutting a deal that aligns with the Trump agenda of rebuilding American manufacturing, but even hundreds of billions of dollars committed to that project may not be enough. 

On September 04, the administration ordered their largest immigration raid of Trump’s second term, sending nearly 500 armed officers to raid the construction site of a Hyundai-LG battery plant in Ellabell, Georgia. They arrested 475 people, most of whom were South Korean nationals.

A Hyundai spokesperson later broke the numbers down. None are direct employees of the carmaker. About 50 are employed by LG Energy Solutions, and another 250 work for HL-GA Battery Company, which operate under Hyundai and LG. And many of the other 175 workers who were swept up in the raid are said to be Latinos. 

As officers, masked and carrying rifles, fanned across the sprawling site, they ordered construction workers to line up against walls, demanded dates of birth and Social Security numbers and began sorting who would be cleared to leave and who would be loaded onto buses bound for the Folkston ICE Processing Center, more than 100 miles away. 

Workers described the scene as a “war zone”. One hid in an air duct to avoid capture. Others tried to flee into a sewage pond; agents used a boat to fish them out and prosecutors later alleged one man tried to flip the vessel. By the end of the day, hundreds were gone. Construction at the 2,900-acre site stopped cold. 

The raid came less than two weeks after Trump and the president of South Korea, Lee Jae Myung, met in the White House, touting $350 billion Seoul has committed to expand its manufacturing operations on American soil. 

That’s the Trump promise, right? You want to do business in America, the world’s biggest economy with the most consumer-y consumers, you’ve gotta bring your operations here and create some jobs for American workers. 

Of course. But it’s more complicated than that. 

Companies often want to – or even need to – bring in their own workers to set up shop, install proprietary equipment, and train the less-skilled hourly employees who’ll be running things day to day. 

For Korean conglomerates, doing so under less-than-above-board visas is not just an open secret, it’s a necessity, the Financial Times reported Monday, citing executives and industry groups. 

One senior Korean official told the FT, the companies were in an “impossible position” after multiple administrations have pushed them to invest in American industry while refusing to facilitate short-term visas that would allow the projects to be completed on time. (Such an arrangement would require Congress to act, per the FT). 

Georgia Governor Brian Kemp’s office issued a statement Friday in response to the raid. 

“In Georgia, we will always enforce the law, including all state and federal immigration laws”, a Kemp spokesperson said. “The Department of Public Safety coordinated with ICE to provide all necessary support for this operation, the latest in a long line of cooperation and partnership between state law enforcement and federal immigration enforcement”.

The South Korean government managed to reach a deal with the Americans and the detained Koreans were eventually released. They finally left for home on a charter plane on Friday. 

The Georgia sortie was a slap in the face for South Korea, one of the United States’ closest allies and sixth-largest trading partner, and will almost certainly have a chilling effect on any business thinking of striking a deal with the Trump administration. According to media outlets, the raid was front-page news across South Korea over the weekend, leading with images of workers – shackled at the wrists, waist and ankles – being loaded onto buses. 

What a humiliation! But you can bet the Koreans will take all of this with a smile and a grin! After all, they're lapdogs of the Americans!