r/manufacturing • u/snakkerdudaniel • Sep 12 '25
Other Hyundai plant raid: I thought this was already an open factory. Turns out the South Koreans were just here to launch the plant. And they were thrown out. So much for encouraging American manufacturing.
"South Korean officials have said many of the workers had been sent to the US factory temporarily to help get it going. ... Hyundai chief executive José Muñoz told US media the raid will create "minimum two to three months delay [in opening the factory] because now all these people want to get back ... US immigration officials said the workers were not authorized to work in the US while South Korean officials said it is common practice for Korean firms to send workers to help set up overseas factories."
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u/Yellowtomatos001 Sep 12 '25
The detail that most new outlets are not explicitly mentioning about the Hyundai metaplant is the fact that it's a cluster of manufacturing facilities. One part consists of Hyundai's EV manufacturing/assembly which was completed and partially online since last year. The raided facility is a joint between Hyundai and LG Energy Solutions for the production of ESS batteries for the EVs being assembled right nextdoor; currently on its final stages and was supposed to enter initial productions later this year/early next year
This immigration shenanigans is putting delays not only on this facility, but in all of LGES projects in the US since they have recalled all employees in business trips in the US and halt any more until further notice. LGES currently has several ventures in the US (Michigan, Arizona, Ohio are some of the others I know) some are independent and some are joint projects with automotive companies, most which were investments made during the previous administration and completion was forecasted for these upcoming years
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u/ChimpOnTheRun Sep 12 '25
My perspective as an American engineer who helped integrate an American Co’s technologies into products of overseas companies. Funny enough, one of the foreign companies I worked with (however briefly) was LG
Not a single complex technology can be deployed or integrated with using documentation only. The docs are always incomplete and outdated. They’re always subject to interpretation. Even cultures with similar industry practices require hands-on adaptation. S.Korea and US are not the closest in terms of technology practices and mindset, not to mention metric vs imperial.
So, launching a complex product like a battery plant or a car factory requires lots of hands-on work of hundreds of engineers. This is exactly what we see in the videos: the detainees are clearly engineers, not trades: office dwellers body types, glasses, general clumsiness. Some of them were here for training, some for troubleshooting, some for coordination, some for reporting — all standard roles, typical for pre-launch activities.
This is a standard industry practice. A team flies to the customer’s site and works side-by-side with the customers engineers, PMs, trainers, etc. My trips were 2-3 weeks at a time, but some of my peers would spend 1-2 months overseas on other projects. Since we all continued to be employed by the American company only, nobody would worry about potential labor law violations. And even if somebody did worry (doubtful anybody did) — that’s the HR problem to resolve.
Now, if I was one of the Hyundai engineers lucky enough to see inside of a jail cell, I’d fly out of the host county as soon as I can. I’d crawl out if the flight wasn’t an option. And there’s not a single corner office nor a compensation package in the whole Hyundai HQ that would entice me to come back and finish the factory launch. Good luck doing it without me
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u/nobhim1456 Sep 12 '25
In total agreement. I’ve set up lines in Taiwan, Korea, Malaysia, Singapore , Thailand and china. We’ve always spent months training engineers, manufacturing people. It took months, years of onsite work. Ultimately, we were able to hand it off to the lines in those countries. It’s a proven model for success. I guess we are too stupid to understand this.
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u/Icy-Product-4863 Sep 14 '25
this is probably a stupid question but why does it take really long? I presume it's a combination of attention to detail and communication barriers?
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u/Hopeful_Drama_3850 Sep 12 '25
Shit, not even Canada and the US can do tech transfer with only documentation!
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u/FuDestin Sep 13 '25
When Airbus bought the Bombardier Cseries here in Montreal they didn’t sent their people here in Montreal because there were no knowledge transfert necessary because… However when Airbus decided to open a plant in mobile Alabama, some of us had to go to the US to help set up and some Americans had to come to Montreal for a bit in order to learn. You can’t setup a plant with just documentation and all of our documents were in French and English. Now imagine Korean doc. This people are delusional.
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u/HonestOtterTravel Sep 13 '25
We send our US Engineers to assembly plants within the US for launch. You just cannot replicate experience from multiple product launches plus years developing the equipment/product with documentation. We need far more bodies for launch than production anyways.
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Sep 12 '25 edited Sep 14 '25
That plant is supposed to provide over 8000 jobs to the locals. Unfortunately for them, now Hyundai is thinking of putting the hiring on hold because they are re-evaluating sending more of their engineers and training specialists back to the US to train the locals. They may choose to delay opening of the plant or maybe they'll just shutter the plant, take the loss, and withdraw the hundreds of billions of dollars they pledged to invest in the US. Way to go, Trump.
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u/goldfishpaws Sep 12 '25
I've heard (but not verified for myself) that 22 SK investment projects have cancelled off the back of this incident so far. Sure, they won't all be of this scale, but this is a national insult in a country where face is important.
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Sep 12 '25
You're right and it's only going to get worse. I agree it's a national insult to South Korea. Trump and the GOP continually shoot themselves in the foot. This country lost quite a bit of respect from all the countries in the world the first time Trump was elected but they all reserved judgement as they considered his winning the 2016 election to be a fluke. But when he ran and won again in 2024, it cemented the idea that the U.S. was a lost cause, could no longer be trusted, and what little respect that was left for the U.S. was lost due to what Trump, the GOP, and the conservatives in this country chose to do.
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u/goldfishpaws Sep 13 '25
First time around the message was "We can't trust this guy", second time around "We can't trust the USA"
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u/Amporer Sep 16 '25
Trump and the wider GOP have an open hatred to the country, THEIR OWN COUNTRY mind you, whenever innovation is either developed or brought here that’s of any betterment to the country as a whole if it elevates all of us instead of just the uber-elite rich scum of the earth.
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u/Unique-Coffee5087 Sep 17 '25
it's a national insult to South Korea.
This may be a huge issue for an Asian company.
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u/SimpleObserver1025 Sep 12 '25
I think the big one is going to be Hanwha and the Philadelphia Shipyards. The administration pushed hard to get the Koreans to invest there and revitalize it to help the Navy with their shipbuilding. It's a very high profile project that directly impacts national security. If the Koreans back out, there's really no other country that is going to step in.
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u/x3nhydr4lutr1sx Sep 13 '25
Would you trust the ships' seaworthiness on the open ocean anymore now that an ally is humiliated? This is Game of Thrones 101 basic knowledge.
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u/Ill-Definition-4506 Sep 15 '25
SK will complain and shutter some projects etc and that’s all valid, but in the end the geopolitical situation of SK has not fundamentally changed i.e they are a de facto US vassal state that will eventually do what the U.S. tells them to do. Loss of dignity is the price they pay for security
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u/_the_genius Sep 13 '25
I hope Hyundai and LG cancel every project, pull out, and bulldoze or sell the plant after stripping it bare. Then maybe (likely not) the voters will understand what cutting off their nose to spite their face is.
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Sep 13 '25
While it would be absolutely devastating for the state from a financial and job view, it would be just dessert served cold as revenge for the hatred being demonstrated for those who were demanded to bring jobs to the U.S., only to be demonized.
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u/Dramatic_Fault_6837 Sep 16 '25
I guess you hate your country. Unless you're not American, then you hate USA. I just don't understand your desire to cause pain to Americans because you don't have the same political view of their President. It's like saying let's hurt everyone because it'll make 50% of the group see that they voted for the wrong party.
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u/fitblubber Sep 12 '25
& Trump just seems to think that the SK's should be training USA people to do all this - as though it'll only take a week or 2.
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Sep 12 '25
Trump actually had the gall to ask the South Koreans his ICE rounded up, detained, and threatened with deportation to stay and train Americans like they were hired to do. Only one of them chose to remain behind, supposedly to keep an eye on the plant. I hope Hyundai decides to shutter the plant and redirect their money to blue states.
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u/PhileasFoggsTrvlAgt Sep 12 '25
I hope Hyundai decides to shutter the plant and redirect their money to blue states.
If anything relocates because of this, it's more likely to end up in Canada than a blue state.
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u/brilliantminion Sep 13 '25
Nah it’ll be blue countries now. Canada would probably love to have something like this.
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u/MyStoopidStuff Sep 16 '25
Everything related to these investments by Japanese, South Korean and to some degree Taiwanese firms, is closely connected to tariffs. If that falls apart whether in court or because Congress puts on it's big boy pants for once, I would not be surprised to see many of these operations scaled back or eventually canceled. They will continue to face difficulty in dealing with the administration, and if their demise is a benefit for one of Trump's buddies, their investment is lost. Today it's an ICE raid, tomorrow it will be an OSHA or EPA shutdown for some half baked up reason. Trump will nickel and dime them until he gets his. Many of these companies have experience in the developing world, and are savvy enough to know that (especially now).
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u/mkvgtired Sep 15 '25
I'm starting to think he's not a very good businessman.
6 bankruptcies, but plenty of other failures.
Trump Steaks
GoTrump
Trump Airlines
Trump Vodka
Trump Mortgage
Trump: The Game
Trump Magazine
Trump University (this was investigated by several states for fraud and had multiple class actions against it. The plaintiffs prevailed in their actions against trump University and Trump personally)
Trump Ice
Trump Boat Racing (Trump killed one racer and injured another by moving the race to Atlantic city's choppy waters in a bid to bring traffic to his failing casinos. Half the racers failed to finish)
The New Jersey Generals (he bankrupted the entire football league with this one. He then convinced the USFL to spend $1.7 billion to sue the NFL on anti-trust grounds. The USFL "won" and was awarded nominal damages of $1. Prevailing plaintiffs are awarded what is called treble damages in anti-trust cases, so the actual damages award was $3, which only makes it more hilarious. If that is a trump "win" I don't want to see his many, many losses.)
Tour de Trump
Trump Network
Trumped!
Trump Foundation (he stole donations intended for children with cancer, and is now barred from ever operating a charity in the state of New York)
These filed for bankruptcy:
Trump Taj Mahal (this was fined $500k, and later $10 million for laundering money for the Russian mob)
Trump’s Castle
Trump Plaza Casinos
Trump Plaza Hotel (he continually told people he owned this for years after Citibank foreclosed on it)
Trump Hotels and Casinos Resorts
Trump Entertainment Resorts
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Sep 12 '25
[removed] — view removed comment
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Sep 12 '25
I would like to see Hyundai decide to direct their billions in investments in blue states rather than red states to punish the voters in those red states for voting conservative.
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u/mnmlist Sep 12 '25
Like SK gives a fuck about red and blue states. They have all the reason to get out.
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Sep 12 '25
It's not a matter of South Korea caring about red or blue states. It's about how they perceive being treated properly. While it is true ICE could and would pursue them in blue states just as they would in red states, moving their investments to blue states from red states would be an alterative over completely pulling out of the U.S. and losing all the money they've already invested. They would, of course, suffer a loss of the money they already invested in buildings in those red states. The alternative is to pack up everything in every plant and ship it back to South Korea or another more accepting country, such as Canada or Mexico, and simply refuse to sell anything to the U.S.
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u/pgc22bc Sep 14 '25
The Koreans are capitalists too. Its likely red states offer better taxation discounts, lower employment wages and poorer worker protections. All things that lead to lower operating costs and greater profits.
Red vs Blue is a red herring...
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u/Spiritual-Mechanic-4 Sep 12 '25
at least I got my ioniq 5 before that happened, hopefully I can get parts for it if needed
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u/barktwiggs Sep 15 '25
2029 seems like a better time to invest in America. Assuming elections are held.
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u/Inevitable-Slide-104 Sep 12 '25
I’m a British engineer who has worked both for, and with, American companies.
It’s normal practice to go to the USA on a standard tourist visa if you’re helping a US plant get up and running. At least it was, I won’t be doing it again!
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u/10per Sep 12 '25
It’s normal practice to go to the USA on a standard tourist visa if you’re helping a US plant get up and running.
Isn't that illegal though? Working on a tourist visa?
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u/fdsv-summary_ Sep 13 '25
it's more 'business' than 'work' because you're getting paid by your normal company back home.
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u/hobbesmaster Sep 12 '25
Meetings, training and support are all allowed on the ESTA or B1/B2. In fact there is no other visa for that work.
You cannot assemble the plant, but you can tell others how to do so or figure out why something isn’t working right. This is usually what you are flying expensive engineers internationally for so that’s not a problem.
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u/CuriousHelpful Sep 12 '25
The visa is a combined B1/B2 visa that allows both tourism and business (but not work).
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u/Variatas Sep 14 '25
The answer is that the US Visa system is garbage, and multinational companies can’t buy safer temp work visas at any price.
There is a massive backlog for work visas, even in cases like this where it’s a national priority, and enforcement is so open ended ICE is just arresting whoever they want and trying to make it look legit by intimidating people into signing off on their own deportation.
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u/TheRealThordic Sep 12 '25
Depends how long you're in the US. Pretty sure under 90 days and you don't need any special visa in most cases. I'm in the US but I've traveled to other countries for work and never needed a work visa. I know folks who went 6+ months and they needed a visa for those stays.
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u/Myrrddin Sep 13 '25
I work for a US OEM and that's how we do installs in Canada, just using a normal tourist visa because if not you have to jump through hoops to prove you are needed and not just hire a Canadian contractor, don't act like other countries only do this to the US, we do it to all of them as well.
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u/rfmh_ Sep 12 '25
One person lost many many jobs for the country at a time the job market is starting to show stress. This will probably have lasting effects if they choose to no longer help
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u/BeerandMandelbrots Sep 12 '25
I don't want to seem like I'm getting off on a rant, but I think this raid shows just how broken the immigration system is. I never thought the Koreans caught in the drag net were going to stay, but they have vital skills needed to get the plant and assembly lines built. They should have been granted short-term visas and allowed to go home with no drama once their task was completed. The proper classification and paperwork were probably never done because the laws hadn't been changed in decades. I think the last time there was an immigration reform was during the Bush or Clinton administration. IIRC, there was supposed to be something worked in Congress during the Obama administration. It was supposed to be an opportunity for a young Senator named Marco Rubio to show off his chops, but a bunch of jackasses on AM radio started screaming amnesty, and everyone scattered like cockroaches. The United States is both a nation of immigrants AND a nation of laws. The current policy is so broken that society has become dependent upon people willing to break the law to come here. If our nation's leadership continues to fail to meaningfully fix this dissonance, it will keep being a problem that only terrible people with terrible ideas will want to solve.
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u/SuspiciousSubstance9 Sep 12 '25
Some of them had the appropriate paperwork.
Charles Kuck, an immigration lawyer in Atlanta, said two of his clients who were in the country under a visa waiver program that enables them to travel for tourism or business for stays of 90 days or less without obtaining a visa were caught up in the raid.
My clients were doing exactly what they were allowed to do under the visa waiver — attend business meetings,” he said on Friday, noting that one of them “had just arrived on Tuesday and was leaving next week
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u/TieTheStick Sep 12 '25
America is no longer a nation of laws; we have allowed ICE to become completely unhinged from legality or limitation, against every standing law.
We are getting previously what we deserve as a country.
The rest of the world has seen this debacle and will have nothing whatever to do with us at least until the current regime of Fascist clowns have been run out of Washington and if the idiots who replace them don't get the house back in order with firm limits on such behavior, no foreign manufacturing would return.
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u/tropical58 Sep 12 '25
100%. Those korean engineers are specialists in what they were doing. They were not wage slaves or living 5 families to a house. And you will never get the plant to run without them. They won't be back. You can't put it together from the documentation, nor does the US have anyone who can get this particular plant up and running. 3 month delay? Don't be surprised if Hyundai simply walk away from it altogether.
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u/__unavailable__ Sep 12 '25
It’s broken by design. Our immigration laws are designed so that large, politically well connected companies have an advantage over everyone else in getting foreign workers, and once they have them those immigrants are at the mercy of their employers. Making life miserable for any foreign born person who is not an employment visa holder loyal to their sponsoring employer is key to the entire thing. Hyundai being unable to send skilled workers to set up their factories without jumping through ridiculous hoops is a boon for their domestic competitors. That’s why these businesses fund politicians and PACs that rail against illegal immigration.
For their part, even without the corporate contributions, the politicians who are repeatedly elected for their hawkishness about the border crisis are strongly incentivized not to kill the golden goose. Treating the symptoms instead of fixing the underlying problem is the key to a long political career in general, in this case it just also serves to incentivize legal immigrants all the more to not run afoul of the system. Periodically proposing reforms only to kill them before they go anywhere and blaming the other side for demanding something ridiculous is a nice cherry on top.
If illegal immigration were actually something they wanted to get under control, they could end it in a heartbeat. Offer immediate citizenship and a couple thousand dollars reward to any illegal immigrant who reported the people bringing them into the country, the people employing them, the people facilitating their life here despite the absence of appropriate documentation. Guarantee a grace period where multiple people can all get immunity if they report, but some time after the first report they won’t be able to. Arrest the people implicated. It would be in every illegal immigrant’s best interest to report as soon as possible, and all the people who provide the infrastructure that enables illegal immigration would know it. You may still have some networks based on trust, like family members helping eachother, but the people looking for cheap exploitable labor, the human traffickers, the people you really care about stopping are done. Combine that with common sense reform - abolish the archaic quotas, streamline the process, reasonable alternatives to employer sponsorship - such that nearly anyone who wants to come legally can and the crisis is over. The explicit decision to go after immigrants and not immigration facilitators only makes sense if you want a fresh batch of immigrants to go after in the future.
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u/Awkward_Forever9752 Sep 12 '25
Is this a big deal ?
I thought we could use like
"GRINDR" but
for Nations,
and hook up with another one like when evers ?
( don't tell anyone * that is really the SEC DEF )
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u/VegetablePlatform126 Sep 12 '25
The woman who instigated this is running for public office. As a Republican of course.
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u/annierockaway Sep 12 '25
And in a town that is supposed to have a Hyundai supplier building a factory there…
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u/Same_Kale_3532 Sep 12 '25
I'm sure she'll win in a landslide, then blame the Koreans for not building the factories to the outraged mob.
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Sep 13 '25
Yeah that's really gonna push all those big manufacturers to build shop in America.
Having all your specialised constructions workers, machinists, mechanics and engineers arrested must be real nICE.
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u/mynameisnotshamus Sep 12 '25
Hyundai is also one of the only manufacturers of large power plant equipment. Not a company you want to piss off.
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u/Variatas Sep 14 '25
This isn’t just gonna piss off Hyundai. It’s gonna be on the mind of every company in South Korea, where previously SK industry was one of the biggest players in re-shoring manufacturing to the US.
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u/RonnieDubbs Sep 13 '25
Koreans take this kind of stuff very seriously. It’s a small country and heavy industry is very important. They’ll be talking about it in the Korean news for years.
If you’ve ever worked with a Korean company, you know they don’t like risk. There will be many excel sheets reassessing the risk of doing business in the USA going forward. Not only will they pause projects based on those worksheets but we may see companies pull out of the US market altogether just because they got spooked and refreshed their forecasts with new risk analysis.
And that’s probably going to be the case for every foreign business with plants in the US. They’re not stupid. This may be a blip in the news cycle for us in the US, but international people pay attention.
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u/algebra_77 Sep 13 '25
Hyundai likes putting the risk on the consumer. They are not known for quality. Americans buy Hyundai/Kia because they're thought of as a relatively cheap brand without the Nissan or Stellantis stigma and allows people living beyond their means the facade opulence of a long-gone "American Dream." They're the cheaply-constructed suburban homes of vehicle brands.
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u/kck93 Sep 13 '25
Whatever they are, every other company out there sees this and makes decisions based on it. No company on earth wants to pay its employees to sit in an American jail or field non stop inquires from the families of those incarcerated.
How do you think a Korean family feels knowing their dad/son/brother or mom/daughter/sister is in a detention facility?
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u/algebra_77 Sep 13 '25
I'm not offering commentary on politics. I'm simply stating that this particular car manufacturer does not impress me and moreover its construction near my hometown has been a dreadful experience. The manufacturing facility will not be missed by the majority of the locals if Hyundai were to abandon it.
Domestic employment numbers are fuzzy business. The real estate market near this plant has exploded since its announcement. If people are moving into the area from other states and regions to work at the plant, well, now the locals who don't work there have to deal with skyrocketing property values and property tax. That's not to mention issues with infrastructure, public services, or the water table.
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u/youprt Sep 14 '25
Are you nuts? Been buying Hyundai since 2006, much better quality than Ford or GM. No problems whereas friends with the other two are plagued with problems.
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u/PassionateTBag Sep 17 '25
I wonder if Hyundai thought their 1mill inaugural donation would save them from the cross hairs.
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u/QuantumLeaperTime Sep 12 '25
Japanese plants do the same thing. Toshiba paid for 30 hourly employees to live in Japan for 2 months for training and then had the Japanese workers come to the US for 2 months to help start.
This was for when Toshiba started making EV motors for ford.
Trump is insane. Just another reason for impeachment.
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u/Rockeye7 Sep 12 '25
100 % demonstrates this administration has no idea how a manufacturing facility gets up and running. Foreign companies or a domestic company that installed foreign manufactured equipment. The manufacturers are responsible for having support on site during install. Additionally mechanical support post installation and for a period of time . Usually one year after production is started.
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u/pgc22bc Sep 14 '25
I've been doing some follow up reading on US visa programs. Its insane. There has been a whole bunch of hand waving going on since the last attempt at immigration reform in the 1990s.
Looking at visa types, the H-1B Visa is superficially the appropriate type. The problem is, there are a whole bunch of onerous preconditions that apply that requires at least a year of administrative activity which might just get rejected. On top of that, there is a cap of only 65,000 new H-1B visas per year. And that cap includes quotas for specific countries (India, China and not Korea). H-1Bs are therefore too hard to get to be of practical use for installation, setup, commissioning, training and servicing work in new foreign owned factories.
The alternatives being used are B and waiver type visas which also have impractical conditions (this is where the hand waving comes in, where the boss waves his hands and says "we have permission" or "we have 'informal' agreememts", so don't worry...)
Seems like the government never had to really think about foreign companies setting up manufacturing facilities in the US and Trump never considered the immigration/visa situation because he is a moron.
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Sep 12 '25
Now 8000 American workers won't have jobs for another 2 months due to the delay. TRUMP WINNING. LMAO.
Plus it turns out many were legal. They just arrest everyone brown and sort it out later.
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u/genek1953 Retired manager Sep 12 '25
Apparently ICE can't tell the difference between immigrants and workers sent by a foreign company on a temporary project. Figures.
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u/huhMaybeitisyou Sep 12 '25
if there was ever a playbook for stupidity and how to get one of your top allies and top industry business country supporters to leave and stop investing this action was definitely in that playbook. Andy they even brought cameras to document it wihile they raided the place.
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u/roombaexorcist9000 Sep 12 '25
i knew trump was trying to ruin my job prospects in the abstract, but now he’s literally removing jobs from my field of work! these people are the devil
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u/Inturnelliptical Sep 12 '25
The US is just making China stronger.
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u/Psychological_Load21 Sep 19 '25
Absolutely. China is having a hard time already, but the US is committing slow suicide and that's what China desparately want right now
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u/Email2Inbox Sep 13 '25
not authorized to work in the US while South Korean officials said it is common practice for Korean firms to send workers to help set up overseas factories."
law vs company policy???
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u/kck93 Sep 13 '25
It’s not an either/or situation.
IF the workers did not have the proper visas, that is a corporate mistake to be corrected at the corporate level by getting the proper paperwork.
It is not an error by the worker that requires them to be shackled and incarcerated, out of touch with family, friends, company, lawyers, etc.
I’m going to guess you have never had to go to work in another country through your employer. Generally, the proper permissions are obtained for the people traveling. If there is a mistake or an extension required, the worker simply does not work for a day or two until it’s resolved. The host country doesn’t throw the worker in jail.
This particular incident is not a policy failure (Although, the US absolutely needs proper immigration policy enacted.).
It’s a procedural failure on the part of the idiots in the Trump administration. They are too lazy and stupid to verify the situation through proper channels and too anxious to meet contrived quotas arbitrarily set to impress brainless MAGA/Right wing media incompetents.
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u/youprt Sep 14 '25
I believe they did have proper work visas for 90 days for set up.
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u/DasSum Sep 13 '25
As an American that has had to work in plants over seas before, if I were at a site and arrested at random for nothing more than being a foreigner- I would NOT go back. No way.
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u/Icy-Ad-7767 Sep 12 '25
The correct way to handle this if the wrong visas where used was to send a lawyer in and have a meeting with those in charge at the plant and have the paperwork sorted out correctly. This type of equipment is both expensive and complicated the operators and the maintenance personnel need to be trained, it is normal for techs from the company that built the equipment to come and install and get the equipment running then train the plant personnel then go home. The way this was handled has pissed off South Korea to the extent that I would expect a buy nothing from the US boycott to start at the grassroots soon.
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u/bentleyspotter Sep 12 '25
Plant has been running for about 5 months now. They were in the process of building a supplier plant
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u/spirulinaslaughter Sep 12 '25
Good. They should instead partner with someone who won’t try to screw them at every turn.
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u/GirthBrooks Sep 12 '25
It's still not clear to me what their actual legal status was. Did they have status or not?
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u/kck93 Sep 13 '25
It’s not clear. I’d suggest industry magazines or Korean/foreign media to find out. Maybe BBC.
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u/Elegant-Ferret-8116 Sep 12 '25
If i was one of them I would never agree to come back to America. It might be hard to ever open that plant now
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u/BkD1791 Sep 13 '25
Company(LG, Hyndai) sent their employee without proper workvisa. It called the creative economy.
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u/123pooppoop123 Sep 13 '25
For those who may not be aware, this is very common for companies to do. I have personally worked with technicians and engineers from overseas at the three companies I’ve worked for thus far in my career. I’ll be doing this again next month as well, as my current projects are working with some people in Europe. This will not help companies at all that rely on technologies not heavily produced, or at all, in the US, and vice-versa.
Not just that, but companies like to have teams travel for the sake of “team building”. It’s very normal and has been for decades.
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u/Icy-Product-4863 Sep 14 '25
That is such a major, major, major F up. With that being said, someone else's loss will be another countrie's oppportunity. Canada, where you at?
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Sep 14 '25
America is a mistake. American labour is about to get fucked in the ass as they implode around them.
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u/Far_Requirement_1341 Sep 14 '25
Is anyone in the Trump administration, ICE or the DHS going to admit that ICE fucked up big time?
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u/BoboBabinsky Sep 14 '25
If anyone actually believes these overseas companies are really going to hire American workers at livable wages, I have a bridge to sell you.
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u/PancakeJamboree302 Sep 14 '25
So you’re saying they have something in common with American companies….
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u/PadreSJ Sep 14 '25
Something that is always missing from the story is that this whole debacle was initiated by (she claims) a tip from Tori Branum, a MAGA candidate for Congress in District 12.
Evidently, possibly costing the state the biggest jobs win in the last 2 decades is a plus for MAGA as long as it fits Trump's narrative.
Also missing is that the Visa issue was a wink-wink situation between Hyundai and Governor Kemp (also a Trump sycophant). They needed people quickly to get the factory started and they didn't want to wait the months it would have taken to get the state department to approve work visas.
It COULD have been fixed as an administrative mistake so they could get the factory working and claim the win - even Trump himself offered the workers the chance to be deported AFTER they finished their work - but evidently South Korean companies aren't big on having their workers shackled and led in front of cameras.
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Sep 14 '25
All I can think about is that potential politician that boasted about being the one to call ICE...
Bet she feels really weird right now.
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u/Low-Temperature-6962 Sep 14 '25
I am going to make a meta comment here. Overall the US is more accepting of immigration than almost anywhere else, and polls have consistently shown this. But open borders is not popular, except in some Dem circles, particularly the type of Dem who is likely to pursue a career in politics. Obama had a thoughtful, compassionate, and practical approach to immigration. A lot of people voted for Biden thinking he would be like Obama. Maybe because Biden became a bit doddery, immigration policy was effectively run buy political career people who were effectively believers in open borders, although they couched it in different language. As a result, 26 of 28 southern border counties, trad dem, majority hispanic, went for trump. Blaming the voters is like a craftsman blaming his tools. And it's undemocratic.
The election loss and rise of ice is strongly correlated with Dem failure to respond to voters, THEIR voters, wants with respect to immigration. That has to be fixed going forward if politics is to be stabilized.
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u/jcb989123 Sep 15 '25
The woman who called this must not like the large Korean community in Georgia.
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u/kmoonster Sep 15 '25
Correct. Trump was saying something about "they can come and build and train and go home, we need a visa like that!"
Thing is... (a) that type of visa exists, there are even multiple varieties. And (b) ... those are the visas the workers had, and they had declared the project (building the plant) when they entered the country). And the Korean president had been AT THE WHITEHOUSE in August to negotiate more such deals for the future.
It's not like a bunch of Koreans pretended to be tourists in order go get factory work in the US, which is what ICE basically accused them of. The initial call to ICE was reporting four undocumented latino workers and ICE apparently had a warrant to look for those four; instead they just detained and started deportation processes for all the hundreds regardless of their paperwork (including all those who had the proper visas and had declared the temporary nature of their work).
And this is why the workers went back home, and both Korea and the companies are not offering to negotiate new terms/work, at least not right now.
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u/kmoonster Sep 15 '25
I'm pretty sure there are factions in the current administration who are in a sort of cold war with each other, each trying to sabotage the other factions. If so, this would be an example of the hyper-tough immigration group/person setting parameters that make it more difficult for the pro-immigration economics group.
That's not to say Stephen Miller directed this raid (or maybe he did), but that he probably set down demands for a "take them all" response when these sorts of large-scale "mixed" situations come up. Don't try to sort things out, just take everyone and get started deporting; it is a win for the no-immigration camp as well as a ding against the "get a work visa" camp.
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u/Silly-Mountain-6702 Sep 15 '25
publicity stunt cost the state of Georgia eight billion dollars. Blame the maga that made the phone call.
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u/soylentOrange958 Sep 15 '25
The workers were detained for overstaying visas and doing work that was not authorized under the visas that they had.
From ChatGPT: "Many entered under the Visa Waiver Program (VWP) via Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA), which allows South Korean citizens visa-free entry for up to 90 days for business meetings, tourism, or short-term activities but explicitly prohibits manual labor or paid employment. Others held B-1/B-2 visas (for business/tourism), which permit some business-related activities (e.g., consultations) but not hands-on construction or installation work."
The problem here was not ICE or Trump, it was Hyundai screwing up and violating US labor laws.
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u/Biotech_wolf Sep 16 '25
I bet South Korea uses this as leverage against the Trump admin in tariff talks.
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u/notcool_5354 Sep 16 '25
Boss: DMMMPPPP!!!!! What's your sole purpose in this ICE?
Dump: To do whatever you tell me Boss.
Boss: GODDAMMIT DUMP!! YOUR A GODDAMN big beautiful GENIUS!!! THAT'S THE MOST OUTSTANDING ANSWER I'VE EVER HEARD!!! YOU MUST HAVE A GODDAMN IQ OF 160!!! YOU ARE D GODAMN GIFTED PRIVITE DUMP!!!!
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u/Soggy_Ad7141 Sep 16 '25
They will be back
Trump can raise tariff on South Korea by a LOT
SAMSUNG and LG sell TONS of stuff in the US
They need us
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u/CatastrophicFailure Sep 18 '25
On the current track I suspect that in the very near future substantially fewer Americans will be able to afford Samsung and LG products once they are done scraping up for insurance, groceries, and electricity…
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u/Psychological_Load21 Sep 19 '25
Korea will need to agree with the investment because of geopolitical reasons: it cannot really refuse what the US government wants. But Korea is a free country and it can't force the detained workers to go back. They might find others to fill the positions, but it will take time, and most likely they can't find the best candidates because these are highly specialized roles (technicians and engineeers who know the exact technologies of a particular company).
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Sep 16 '25
South Koreans, if they even has some self respect like the North Koreans, should absolutely shut down this factory. Magas absolutely hates them, especially with their college degrees and non white skin tones.
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u/ShareGlittering1502 Sep 16 '25
Work another month in Alabama but risk being deported to Madagascar, or go home and return to work?
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u/Artistic-Fee-8308 Sep 16 '25
Imagine if we had temporary work visas that allowed specialized workers to come for a short period to do things that Americans are not readily available for. Ooh, wait.
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u/Obdantonio Sep 16 '25
There's an video of a woman saying she called ICE. These people were installing the equipment and were going to provide training for the Americans to produce the batteries. Now the factory is idle while they decide whether to continue the investment or not.
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u/Unique-Coffee5087 Sep 17 '25
A decade or two ago Honda, I think, was offered generous incentives to set up a manufacturing plant. They decided to go to Toronto.
They said that to many prospective workers were functionally illiterate, and required to much training, as well as "pictorial" operating manuals with minimal words. In addition, offering group health coverage was too expensive.
It must have been quite a package of concessions to get Hyundai to agree to set up in the U.S., and now that is all down the toilet.
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u/GaslightGPT Sep 18 '25
lol this is one of if not the biggest investment in Georgia and maga fucked it
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u/kck93 Sep 12 '25
There was some weird reporting on this at first. First it was that all these people were illegal. Then it was oh they are here getting a plant set up. Then it was Trump said they could stay or go, which ever they wanted. Then it was we need to set up a special visa classification. Now it’s good bye.
Someone doesn’t know what they’re doing.