Immigration authorities arrested hundreds of workers for a major South Korean battery maker at a Hyundai plant in Georgia, U.S. officials said on Friday, calling it the largest-ever Homeland Security enforcement operation at a single location.
Agents on Thursday arrested 475 people, most of whom are South Korean citizens, at a construction site for an electric vehicle battery plant in Ellabell, Ga., near Savannah, Steven Schrank, a special agent in charge of Homeland Security Investigations for Georgia, said at a news conference.
The raid was the culmination of an investigation that took place over several months, he said.
Mr. Schrank said that the workers arrested were in the United States illegally or were working unlawfully. No criminal charges would be announced on Friday, he said, adding that investigators were still determining employment details for those arrested, some of whom worked for subcontractors.
The operation aimed to ensure “a level playing field for businesses that comply with the law,” Mr. Schrank said.
Most of those arrested were held at the Folkston detention facility in Georgia on Thursday night.
The battery manufacturer, LG Energy Solution, which co-owns the plant with Hyundai Motor Group, said in a statement that employees of both companies had been taken into custody.
Hyundai said in a statement that none of those detained were Hyundai employees, as far as the company was aware.
“We are closely monitoring the situation and working to understand the specific circumstances,” Hyundai said on Friday.
South Korea’s Foreign Ministry confirmed on Friday that South Koreans were among those in custody, without saying how many.
Mr. Schrank told reporters at the plant on Thursday that some U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents had been detained initially and were being released.
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.”
“It appears that ICE was somewhat overzealous in arresting nonimmigrants who were clearly obeying the law,” he said.
The operation, part of President Trump’s crackdown on immigration, caused diplomatic alarm in South Korea.
Just over a week earlier, Mr. Trump hosted President Lee Jae Myung of South Korea at the White House, where the South Korean leader pledged to invest an additional $150 billion in the United States, including in battery manufacturing.
The operation on Thursday echoed other workplace raids, including a huge one conducted across various work sites in Mississippi during Mr. Trump’s first term. In 2019, federal agents raided several companies in what officials said at the time might have been the largest work-site enforcement action ever in a single state.
More than 600 immigrants who were believed to be working without legal documentation were apprehended during that operation. The Biden administration announced it was ceasing the practice of enforcement operations at businesses in 2021.
In another large workplace raid under the administration of President George W. Bush, 389 workers were arrested at a kosher meatpacking company in Postville, Iowa, in May 2008. The company filed for bankruptcy later that year.
The lithium-ion battery plant, which predated Mr. Lee’s pledge, was expected to start operating next year. It is the kind of large-scale, job-creating investment that the United States has sought from South Korea and other nations.
South Korean companies have invested tens of billions of dollars in American manufacturing in recent years, much of it incentivized by federal subsidies and tax breaks for semiconductor plants and electric vehicle factories.
The Trump administration has already backtracked on some of those commitments, possibly damaging anticipated returns for giants like SK Group, LG and Samsung.
In late July, the White House struck a deal with South Korea that would set 15 percent tariffs on most of the country’s exports to the United States.
South Korean executives told local media that they need their own technicians on-site, at least temporarily, to get all of their factories up and running. And at the same time, South Korean companies are paying billions of dollars in tariffs, diminishing the capital available to spend on new plants.
The Ellabell site is part of one of Georgia’s largest manufacturing plants. Gov. Brian Kemp of Georgia, a Republican, has promoted the $7.6 billion Hyundai E.V. factory there as the largest economic development project in state history.
The Korean community has grown prominent in Gwinnett County, Ga., where places like Duluth, Suwanee and Lawrenceville are often referred to as “the Seoul of the South.”
The immigration operation brought construction to a halt at the battery plant, known as HL-GA Battery Company. A spokeswoman, Mary Beth Kennedy, said in a statement that the plant was cooperating with the authorities.
Jongwon Lee, a Korean lawyer who works in metro Atlanta, said on Friday that South Korean conglomerates are bringing huge investments into the United States, but there aren’t enough visas to sponsor trained workers to run these factories.
The blame lies with the American visa system, he said. The United States “invited us to invest in the U.S., but they don’t give Koreans proper visas.”
State Representative Sam Park, a Democrat, called the raid a “politically motivated attack” on Georgia workers and families.
“These raids target the very people building our clean energy future while tearing families apart,” he said. “Georgia’s prosperity depends on protecting workers, not criminalizing them.”
South Korean Embassy and consular officials were sent to the site from Washington and Atlanta, Lee Jaewoong, a spokesman for South Korea’s Foreign Ministry, said at a news conference on Friday.
“The economic activities of our investment companies and the rights and interests of our citizens must not be unjustly violated during U.S. law enforcement proceedings,” he said.
LG Energy Solution said that it was working with the South Korean government to get its employees, as well as Hyundai’s, released.
Neal E. Boudette, Lydia DePillis and Miriam Jordan contributed reporting.
John Yoon is a Times reporter based in Seoul who covers breaking and trending news.
Jenny Gross is a reporter for The Times covering breaking news and other topics.
Aimee Ortiz covers breaking news and other topics.
Ashley Ahn covers breaking news for The Times from New York.
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