South Korea Reacts to U.S. Operation Leading to Mass Arrests

South Korea’s foreign minister is considering a trip to the United States to address a raid on a Hyundai plant in Georgia where 475 people, primarily South Korean nationals, were detained.

Cho Hyun mentioned that Seoul is planning a prompt visit to discuss the situation following the arrests, representing President Lee Jae Myung, who had recently met with Donald Trump at the White House.

“We are deeply troubled and feel a strong responsibility for the detention of our citizens,” Cho stated during an emergency meeting on Saturday, as reported by Yonhap News Agency.

Cho confirmed that approximately 300 of the 475 arrested were South Korean nationals, with photos showing some of those arrested being put in chains.

‘We are deeply concerned and feel a heavy sense of responsibility over the arrests of our nationals,’ he said.

‘We will discuss sending a senior foreign ministry official to the site without delay, and, if necessary, I will personally travel to Washington to hold consultations with the U.S. administration,’ Cho added.

The message from the president has been to ensure that rights of both those arrested and their companies not be infringed upon. 

First Vice Foreign Minister Park Yoon-joo raised the issue in a telephone call with US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Allison Hooker, voicing regret over the crackdown and the release of footage showing the Korean workers’ arrest.

Park said ‘the economic activities of Korean companies investing in the United States and the rights and interests of Korean citizens must not be unfairly infringed upon during US law enforcement operations,’ his ministry said.

Park ‘asked the State Department to actively work to ensure a fair and swift resolution to this matter,’ the statement added.

The mass arrests have already prompted a diplomatic dispute as South Korea’s Foreign Ministry dispatched officials to the factory. 

The ministry also urged the U.S. Embassy in Seoul ‘to exercise extreme caution to ensure that the legitimate rights and interests of Korean citizens are not infringed upon.’

‘The economic activities of Korean investment companies and the rights and interests of Korean citizens must not be unfairly infringed upon during U.S. law enforcement operations,’ the statement read. 

The Daily Mail has reached out to the State Department for further comment.  

Officials said a total of 475 immigrants suspected of working in the US illegally were detained – the vast majority of them from Korea – which represented almost half of the factory’s 1200 workers. 

Steven Schrank, the special agent in charge of Homeland Security Investigations in Georgia, told reporters Friday that he was unsure how many exactly were Korean and said no criminal charges had yet been filed. 

Many of those who were detained had entered the US illegally while others previously had visas but overstayed their legal work permits, officials said. 

Schrank added that the raid was the result of a months-long investigation into the facility, and described the sweep as the largest enforcement operation at a single site in the history of Homeland Security Investigations. 

‘This operation underscores our commitment to protecting jobs for Georgians and Americans, ensuring a level playing field for businesses that comply with the law, safeguarding the integrity of our economy and protecting workers from exploitation,’ he said. 

The massive raid comes days after the Trump administration announced it was stepping up its deportation efforts and would clear the way to detain as many as 256,000 Venezuelans by ending their temporary protection status.

Following the raid on the Hyundai factory on Thursday, officials said the detainees would be moved to an ICE facility in Folkston, Georgia, near the Florida-Georgia state line. 

‘They will be moved based on their individual circumstances beyond that,’ Schrank said. 

The move was quickly condemned by Yvonne Brooks, the president of Georgia’s chapter of American Federation of Labor–Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO), who blasted it as ‘politically motivated.’ 

‘This raid is the latest in an ongoing campaign of harassment that has targeted immigrant Georgians as they try to earn an honest living,’ she said in a statement, per CBS News. 

‘Arresting and detaining workers, who are exploited every day and risk their lives every day on the job, creates an atmosphere of fear that terrorizes workers and their families and increases the workload burden on their coworkers.’ 

The Hyundai plant where the raid occurred cost upwards of $7.6 billion and employed around 1,200 people, and had been touted by Georgia officials as one of the most significant economic projects in the state’s history. 

Hyundai began manufacturing electric vehicles at the plant a year ago, but construction was shut down by the raid.