Hyundai Immigration Raid in Georgia: Why Did ICE Arrest South Korean and Other Workers?

Among the various immigration enforcement actions carried out under the second Trump Administration, the September 2025 raid at a Hyundai-LG battery plant in Georgia has raised particular attention—including puzzlement and scorn. Why, worldwide commentators ask, did the same administration that declared a negotiating victory over Hyundai's commitment to spend billions investing in the U.S. then hamstring this effort by deporting South Korean and other workers?

Here, we'll explain the legal background and apparent reasoning behind the enforcement action, and see what broader lessons can be gleaned from it.

What Happened During the Hyundai Plant Raid

On September 4, 2025, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) conducted what's said to be the largest single-site immigration enforcement operation in the agency's history, dubbed "Operation Low Voltage." Hundreds of federal agents from ICE and other agencies showed up to check workers' immigration paperwork at a Hyundai facility in Ellabell, causing panic and attempts at escape. Although this massive Hyundai site has an existing electric car plant, the area where the raid happened was a new facility within it, dedicated to producing electric car batteries.

The agents did have a judicially signed search warrant for this action, but media reports say it named only four people. Nevertheless, federal agents ultimately arrested (using handcuffs and leg shackles) 475 workers and transported them to detention facilities. The majority were South Korean nationals, though NBC also reported arrests of people from Japan, Guatemala, Colombia, Chile, Mexico, Ecuador and Venezuela. Many were ultimately sent away to their home countries.

What Visa Options Do Foreign Workers Have?

In its start-up phase, a foreign-owned business in the United States might need many different types of workers: company experts (such as engineers and installers), short-term consultants, construction and building crews, and eventually management and staff for everyday operations. Depending on the role and worker availability, the company making the investment could draw on people from either the United States or abroad. Some could be on loan from the company, some could be new company hires, and some could be brought in as temporary subcontractors (as the majority in fact were in the Hyundai case).

Some foreign-born job applicants might already have U.S. work authorization cards (if, for example, they have a pending application for a U.S. green card). Often, however, the company or subcontractor will need to petition for the foreign workers they're hoping to hire to receive an appropriate visa, either a temporary ("nonimmigrant") work visa or an immigrant visa, otherwise known as a green card. The relevant visa categories are narrower than one might expect.

Examples of temporary visas that might match the possible positions mentioned above include:

• B-1: For business visitors with unique skills who will perform limited tasks requiring these skills. Examples of the permitted tasks include negotiating contracts, attending meetings, training employees, and installing or repairing machinery if no one else can be trained to do it yet. One key is that they aren't being paid for this work by a U.S. company. The B-1 allows up to a six-month stay per entry, with possible extensions of stay in six-month increments if the reasons are consistent with the terms and conditions of the original status. Might also allow multiple entries over several years.
• ESTA B: For people whose countries are on the Visa Waiver Program (VWP) list (as South Korea is), allowing them to enter the United States for tourism or business but not for employment. The permitted stay is no more than 90 days, with no extensions. Doesn't require applying for an actual visa.
• H-1B: For temporary workers in specialty occupations. Most H-1B workers are initially granted up to a three-year stay, with extensions allowed up to a maximum total stay of six years (with exceptions, notably for persons seeking permanent residence through the job).
• H-2B: For workers coming to perform temporary jobs for which there is a shortage of available, qualified U.S. workers. Allows up to an initial maximum stay of 12 months, with extensions of up to a year possible, limited by an overall maximum of 3 years.
• L-1: For intracompany transferees (from the home company) who will work as managers or executives or who have specialized knowledge. Allows for an initial maximum stay of three years, plus extensions in increments of up to two years.
• O-1: For persons of extraordinary ability in the sciences, arts, education, business, or athletics. Allows holders to stay for the entire time necessary to accomplish the event or activity, up to 3 years initially, with 1-year extensions possible and no maximum.
• TN: Trade visas for Canadian and Mexican workers. Initial entry allows a one year stay, but it can be renewed for years in succession with no maximum.
• Dependent visas for the above-named visa holders' spouses and children; will be good for as long as the parent or spouse's visa is good, unless the relationship changes or the children turn 21 or marry.

(For more on these and other types of short-term visas, see Types of U.S. Nonimmigrant (Temporary) Visas: Who Qualifies?)

Work-based immigrant visas (allowing lifetime residence) are harder to qualify for and take much longer to get. For details, see these articles on Getting an Employment-Based Green Card.

The Legal Fine Print: Why Hyundai Plant Workers Were Targeted

To understand the U.S. government's justification for arresting hundreds of workers at the Hyundai plant, we need to examine what visas they were actually on (if any) and what sort of work they were doing. Full details on this are not available, but many of the South Korean workers apparently entered the United States using either ESTA/Visa Waiver entry or a B-1 visa. The allegation was that the work they were doing went beyond the strict limits prescribed for these respective visas and crossed over into accepting actual employment in the United States.

As background, however, Reuters reported that, "For years, South Korean companies have said they struggle to obtain short-term work visas for specialists needed in their high-tech plants … and had come to rely on a grey zone of looser interpretation of [U.S.] visa rules." For instance, an H-1B visa would seemingly have been best for some of the Hyundai factory workers, such as mechanics, technicians, and battery engineers. But since such visas were denied to them (not surprisingly, with a limited and insufficient number of H-1Bs available annually), some turned to less fitting visa alternatives.

Also noteworthy is that most of the people arrested were working for subcontractors, not for Hyundai itself. According to reports, these included workers who entered illegally, came lawfully on a visa but then overstayed, came on a visa that doesn't allow work (possibly student visas, for instance), and so on.

Among those arrested, however, might have been people whose immigration status arguably did allow them to do the work they were doing. Workers' family members who were interviewed by CNN, for instance, describe loved ones who had valid work permits being forced onto ICE buses regardless. There are also gray areas in the interpretation of what's allowed. Experienced and respected attorney Charles Kuck, for instance, stated that the detention of five of his clients indicates that the investigators didn't "do their homework," because the work they were doing WAS within the scope of either their ESTA or B-1 visa permission.

Can the Hyundai Battery Plant Workers Return?

The approximately 300 people who were removed from the United States after this raid are unlikely to be able to return to this country at all (though the government decisions in individual cases could vary). Broadly speaking, any past immigration violation on one's record makes it much harder to obtain approval of a future visa. And depending on the length of a person's unlawful U.S. stay, they could be banned from reentering the U.S. for 3 years or 10 years. Also, people who've been ordered removed face an automatic bar on U.S. reentry of at least five years (but depending on other factors, the bar can last for up to 20 years or be permanent; see How Long After Deportation Must I Wait Before Returning to the U.S.?).

To ease some of these consequences, the U.S. arranged for most of the detained workers to voluntarily return to South Korea. A voluntary departure comes with fewer immigration law consequences than a formal order of removal or deportation. The U.S. also agreed to charter a Korean Air jet to transport the workers home, and to not handcuff or otherwise physically restrain them.

Nevertheless, many workers remained in detention for months. A reported 300 of them were released in early December of 2025 and flown home to South Korea.

What Are This Raid's Implications for Worksite Enforcement Strategy?

The Hyundai raid fits into a broader pattern of increased worksite enforcement under the Trump administration. This strategy is meant to discourage other employers from hiring unauthorized workers and to ensure compliance with existing immigration laws.

For foreign workers, an important takeaway is that being in the United States legally, or after a legal entry, doesn't necessarily come with the right to work here. Accepting unauthorized employment is one of the many violations of visa terms that can lead directly to arrest and deportation. Whether or how such violations are enforced depends on the policies and preferences of the administration in power, but it's always important to know what your visa allows and what will risk arrest and deportation.

Impact on U.S.-South Korea Relations

By many accounts, the raid has strained relations between the U.S. and South Korea, two countries that are normally tight allies. South Korean President Lee Jae Myung called the raid "bewildering" and warned it could have a chilling effect on South Korean investment in the United States. His government said it would be investigating potential human rights violations that took place during the raid and subsequent detentions.

In the meantime, Trump's response to questions about the raid was "I would say that they were illegal aliens and ICE was just doing its job."

And as of November 2025, around 200 of the detained workers were reported to be on the verge of filing a lawsuit against ICE, seeking damages on the basis of racial discrimination, human rights violations and excessive use of force.

Other South Korean companies are apparently reconsidering U.S. investments.

While the Hyundai enforcement action can be legally justified under U.S. immigration law (at least as to some or most of the workers), it highlights a fundamental tension in immigration policy. Many foreign companies investing in the United States need specialized workers to get the business rolling, but the law's narrowly defined visa categories, along with annual limits on visa numbers, don't easily accommodate their needs. The Hyundai case provides an object lesson in how strict enforcement of U.S. immigration laws can conflict with economic development goals and undermine international economic relationships.