South Korea reached a deal with the United States to free hundreds of South Korean workers arrested when U.S. immigration authorities raided the construction site of a battery plant in Georgia, the country’s presidential office said on Sunday.
“There are some administrative procedures left, but once they are cleared, we will send a chartered plane to bring our people home,” Kang Hoon-sik, the chief of staff for President Lee Jae Myung of South Korea, told a meeting of senior officials from the administration and the governing Democratic Party on Sunday.
Mr. Kang provided no further details, including when South Korea expected to send the plane. But his remarks provided the first strong indication that South Korea and the United States were working out a diplomatic solution after days of tensions between the allies.
U.S. immigration officials stormed the construction site of a major Hyundai-LG electric vehicle battery plant in Ellabell, Ga., on Thursday, arresting 475 people. Of them, about 300 were South Korean citizens, the South Korean foreign minister’s office said.
The raid unsettled South Korea, a crucial U.S. ally that has been asked to invest billions of dollars in the United States to build new factories and create jobs. It was part of the Trump administration’s aggressive crackdown on immigration, and U.S. officials said those arrested were in the United States illegally or working unlawfully.
“We will not let our guards down until we have our people safely back home,” Mr. Kang said. “We will also review and improve the visa system for those who go to the United States on business trips related to investment projects so that similar incidents won’t be repeated.”
The Trump administration has encouraged South Korean industrial giants like Hyundai, Samsung and LG to invest in the United States. But the administration has also drastically tightened visa allocations, making it more difficult for them to bring cheap and skilled workers to build their factories.
Those arrested included dozens of LG workers who were on business trips with various visas or under a visa waiver program to provide technical guidance for building the battery factory, according to industry officials familiar with the project. Other detained South Korean workers had been hired by construction subcontractors working for Hyundai and LG, they said.
U.S. immigration officials accused the South Korean companies of discriminating against American workers by hiring unauthorized workers from abroad.
Choe Sang-Hun is the lead reporter for The Times in Seoul, covering South and North Korea.
The post South Korea Negotiates Release of Korean Workers Detained in Georgia Raid appeared first on New York Times.
