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After nearly 475 workers, most of whom were South Korean nationals, were detained by immigration officials at a Hyundai car battery facility in Georgia last week, South Korea President Lee Jae Myung issued a stark warning to the United States.
“As things stand now, our businesses will hesitate to make direct investments in the United States,” Lee said Thursday, underscoring the dramatic diplomatic and economic fallout from the raid by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Lee has urged the U.S. to ease visa restrictions for South Korean workers to protect future investments.
The comments came just one day after Secretary of State Marco Rubio met South Korea’s Foreign Minister Cho Hyun. In the meeting, Rubio said he welcomes the country’s investment in the U.S., especially if it “revitalizes American manufacturing through ROK (Republic of Korea) investment in shipbuilding and other strategic sectors, and promotes a fair and reciprocal trade partnership,” according to a statement from State Department’s spokesperson Tommy Pigott.
South Korea, one of the U.S.’s closest allies in Asia, pledged $350 billion for investments in U.S. projects in July. In exchange, President Donald Trump said he would lower tariffs for the country to 15% from the 25% duty he had threatened earlier. Hyundai, a South Korean car manufacturer, reported a drop in profits in its second quarter amid the U.S.’s auto tariffs.
A plane carrying the more than 300 South Korean workers who had been in ICE detention for a week left Atlanta around noon on Thursday and arrived in Seoul on Friday.
LG Energy Solution, which employs 47 of those who were detained, apologized to the workers and expressed gratitude to the South Korean government, NBC News reports. “We are profoundly thankful for the extraordinary efforts to not only ensure an unusually swift release but also to carefully address various concerns, including guaranteeing that there will be no disadvantages upon re-entry,” the company said in a statement.
None of those who were detained are employed directly by Hyundai, the company said in a statement shortly after the incident, but Hyundai CEO José Muñoz told Bloomberg on Thursday that work at the Georgia plant will endure a “minimum two to three months delay” as a result of the labor shortage caused by the raid.