As hundreds of federal agents swooped in on a Georgia construction site for the largest ICE enforcement sweep in the agency\u2019s history, some of the workers being detained broke and ran into a sewage pond. <\/p>\n
According to The Wall Street Journal,<\/a> immigration officers entered the property around 10:45 a.m. Thursday, and began separating a large group of workers by nationality and visa status. Groups were processed and then loaded onto buses. <\/p>\n The raid took place on the sprawling $7.6 billion manufacturing site in Georgia about 25 miles west of Savannah. <\/p>\n A South Korean Foreign Ministry official expressed \u201cconcern and regret\u201d over the ICE raid, which took place at a signature Hyundai electric vehicle plant in Georgia.<\/a><\/p>\n According to Fast Company,<\/a> Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lee Jaewoong said in a televised statement that the government is taking measures in relation to the detention of 475 people, most of them South Korean nationals.<\/p>\n Lee said the government is dispatching diplomats from its Washington embassy and Atlanta consulate to the site, and creating an on-site response team. <\/p>\n South Korean President Lee Jae Myung on Saturday ordered efforts to ensure the rights of Korean citizens and Korean businesses investing in the U.S. aren\u2019t violated, according to the country\u2019s foreign minister.<\/p>\n Meanwhile Hyundai in a statement said it is committed to compliance with all laws and regulations, including employment verification requirements and immigration laws.<\/p>\n \u201cWe expect the same commitment from all our partners, suppliers, contractors, and subcontractors,\u201d the company said. Hyundai has also opened an internal investigation into suppliers and subcontractors at the site.<\/p>\n Steven Schrank, the lead Georgia agent of Homeland Security Investigations, said during a Friday news conference the raid resulted from a monthslong investigation into allegations of illegal hiring at the site.<\/p>\n Schrank said he didn\u2019t know precisely how many of the 475 detained were Korean nationals, but that they made up a majority.<\/p>\n On Saturday, LG Energy said 47 of its employees, South Koreans and one Indonesian, plus about 250 employees of partner companies, most of them South Korean, were among the detainees.<\/p>\n LG Energy said it is suspending most business trips to the U.S. and directing employees on assignment in the U.S. to return home immediately or remain in their accommodations.<\/p>\n The raid took place at the site\u2019s electric battery plant, which is still under construction. <\/p>\n Hyundai and LG\u2019s battery joint venture, HL-GA Battery Company, said it had paused construction at the site. Operations at Hyundai\u2019s EV manufacturing plant weren\u2019t interrupted, according to plant spokesperson Bianca Johnson.<\/p>\n Hyundai says it will employ as many as 8,500 workers and have the capacity to make a half million vehicles a year, once the plant is complete. <\/p>\n Back in March, Hyundai announced plans to invest $21 billion on its U.S. manufacturing operations.<\/a><\/p>\n Hyundai\u2019s Montgomery factory currently employs about 4,000 people, contributes about $5 billion to the state\u2019s economy and is the largest employer in the central Alabama region.<\/p>\n If you purchase a product or register for an account through a link on our site, we may receive compensation. By using this site, you consent to our User Agreement<\/a> and agree that your clicks, interactions, and personal information may be collected, recorded, and\/or stored by us and social media and other third-party partners in accordance with our Privacy Policy.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As hundreds of federal agents swooped in on a Georgia construction site for the largest ICE enforcement sweep…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":138409,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[192,79],"class_list":{"0":"post-138408","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-environment","9":"tag-science"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138408","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=138408"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138408\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/138409"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=138408"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=138408"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=138408"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}