Hundreds of South Korean workers who had been detained in shackles in the United States landed in their home country on Friday, met by their family members who applauded and tearfully hugged them.
The chartered Korean Air passenger jet carrying 316 South Koreans and 14 other foreign workers landed at Incheon International Airport outside Seoul, the South Korean capital, on Friday, after a 13-hour flight. One of the returnees was pregnant, according to the South Korean presidential office.
Dozens of TV and other journalists crowded the arrival lounge, reflecting the intense attention that the workers’ arrest has generated in South Korea, a key U.S. ally in Asia. They were swept up last week in an immigration raid on a Georgia factory and taken away in handcuffs and shackles.
Hundreds of family members gathered in an airport parking tower, watching the landing of the plane on their smartphones. Some held up makeshift signs with the names of those they were waiting for. When the workers got off shuttle buses and walked into the tower, relatives rushed and hugged them in tears, while others clapped. Also awaiting them were officials from Hyundai and LG Energy Solution, which jointly own the Georgia factory, and their subcontractors.
Most of the returnees declined to talk to reporters as they were whisked away by their families. A handful answered questions, providing the first accounts of what had happened from the perspective of those who had been detained. Two of them described hearing about the raid before it happened. Some said they had gone to the United States on a visa waiver program or had traveled on a business visa, and expressed confusion about why they had been detained.
The day before the arrests, word spread at the facility that a raid was imminent, said two of the workers, who declined to be named out of concern for repercussions over speaking out. Many other employees did not report for work on the day of the raid, but most of the South Koreans did, expecting that they would not be a target of immigration raids, they said.
“I am angry because we would not have been arrested if we had been told not to come to work,” said Jeong Gwan-won, 32, an electrician for an LG subcontractor.
He said he had used the visa-waiver program, which allows travel to the United States for 90 days for tourism or business.
“Our employers told us that it was OK for us to come to work for them” in the United States, Mr. Jeong said. “They said it was the usual practice.”
Returning workers described the trauma of seeing armored vehicles and armed agents rolling in, and of being handcuffed and shackled at the ankles by the immigration officials.
“I will never visit the United States again,” Mr. Jeong said.
Cha Goo-chang reunited with his two young boys, whom he held in each of his arms. Like many others who came off the plane, he carried a small mesh bag with some clothes and other belongings.
“It feels good to be free,” he said, smoking a cigarette.
“We were each doing our assigned tasks at the facility when immigration suddenly showed up. I was shocked,” he said, speaking in Korean, like the other returnees. “I don’t speak English. I just followed where others went. My superiors were scattered, too. We got on a bus while handcuffed.”
He said the conditions at the detention center were poor.
“We drank tap water,” Mr. Cha said. “We were put in a room with 80 people, then moved for questioning and interviews. Processing took hours in a cramped space.”
One man, who said that he worked for a subcontractor for the Georgia project, said he had been at the construction site for only three days when the immigration officials descended on the factory. He was on a three-week trip on the visa-waiver program to give technical advice, and said he could not understand why he was detained.
Another returnee, who said that he was employed by another subcontractor, said he was working there on a B-1 short-term business visa, but he added that he believed that some of the workers had stayed longer than the 90 days allowed under the visa-waiver program. U.S. immigration officials appeared to bypass employees carrying long-term work visas and rounded up those carrying B-1 visas or traveling under the visa-waiver program, he said.
The U.S. Embassy in Seoul did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The workers’ return ended a weeklong drama that began Thursday last week when armed U.S. immigration officials stormed a major electronic vehicle battery plant that Hyundai and LG are building in Ellabell, Ga.
The scenes of South Korean workers hauled away in handcuffs and ankle chains have outraged South Korea, raising tensions between the allies.
“This is a national humiliation,” Hong Jeong-sik, 75, shouted at the arrival lounge, holding a placard criticizing the treatment of workers from South Korea. “This is not the way you treat your ally.”
But the workers’ repatriation left much unresolved.
President Trump has demanded that allies like South Korea and Japan vastly expand their investments in the United States and build new plants to help rejuvenate its manufacturing industry and create jobs. But in the aftermath of the raid, South Korea complained that its companies have had a hard time finding skilled technicians in the United States needed to build factories or getting work visas to bring such workers from South Korea.
So companies like LG and its subcontractors brought workers from South Korea on B-1 short-term business visas or under a visa-waiver program.
Immigration officials said they had arrested people who were working illegally in the United States. They said their crackdown on the Georgia plant was their largest workplace raid under Mr. Trump’s escalating campaign to remove illegal immigrants and preserve jobs for American citizens.
On Thursday, President Lee Jae Myung of South Korea said that if Washington does not ease visa requirements for workers from his country, its businesses would hesitate to build new factories there.
In a trade deal announced in late July, South Korea agreed to put together a $350 billion investment package in return for the United States lowering tariffs on its exports to 15 percent, from 25 percent. With both sides still haggling over the details of the deal, South Korean officials insisted that the United States resolve the visa issue before investments proceed.
Choe Sang-Hun is the lead reporter for The Times in Seoul, covering South and North Korea.
John Yoon is a Times reporter based in Seoul who covers breaking and trending news.
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