ICE Raid on Hyundai 1

Koreans are talking about Trump's ICE raid on Hyundai in Georgia.

https://www.chosun.com/economy/industry-company/2025/09/06/ESA6V6S2FBCWVLB6B4JQSWCAKU/

One employee said, “A Korean employee who had come on a business trip with a B1 (commercial) visa to train local personnel was also arrested.” It was reported that about 300 Koreans were detained locally, including employees of LG Ensol and the headquarters and subcontractors of Hyundai Engineering, which was in charge of the construction.

Construction on the Hyundai Motor-LG Ensol battery plant, originally scheduled for completion by the end of this year, has been halted. Hyundai Motor's plan to hire 8,500 people by 2031 for its HMGMA (Hyundai Motor Group Manufacturing Automobile Manufacturing Association) and battery plant has also been inevitably disrupted. 

The possibility of crackdowns on other Korean companies is also being raised. Samsung Electronics is building a foundry in Texas, and SK Hynix plans to build a semiconductor packaging plant in Indiana. Hyundai Motor is also preparing to build a robot factory capable of handling 30,000 units and an electric arc furnace steel mill with a capacity of 2.7 million tons.

The U.S. government's crackdown on overseas companies' factory construction sites is a pressure to increase American employment. The problem is that finding local workers with the necessary skills and expertise for construction and initial operation is a near-impossible task. 

An official from a Korean construction company building a local factory said, "It's impossible to meet project deadlines by hiring only Americans." He added, "To address various issues, we have no choice but to dispatch our engineers. They're demanding investment, but they're not issuing visas for essential workers. What are they expecting us to do?"

However, the scale of this incident is unprecedented, and it's even more shocking because it comes at a time when many Korean companies are making large-scale investments in the US to avoid the Trump administration's "tariff bomb." An executive at a major corporation investing tens of trillions of won in the US said, "We're not trying to steal American jobs. We're just trying to build factories quickly and hire locals. It's disheartening that the reward for all this effort is being treated as 'illegal immigrants.'"

Korean personnel who need urgent local deployment sometimes resort to using the ESTA. This is because ESTAs, designed for short-term business trips or leisure travel, are typically issued within a day and allow for stays of up to 90 days. Kim Cheol-gi, an attorney at Hanmi Law Firm, said, "This is also the reason why US immigration authorities have recently been increasingly revoking visas or denying entry to Korean business travelers."

A B1 visa, used for business meetings or contract signing, allows for local education and training, making it a legitimate form of residence for Korean companies. However, if US authorities take issue with "employment activities outside the visa issuance purpose," conflict is inevitable.

Korean companies are demanding the creation of a new "Korean-only work visa (E-4)." This is a dedicated work visa allocated by the United States to its FTA partners. While Australia has secured a quota of 10,500, Singapore 5,400, and Chile 1,400, Korea still has none. Jeong Man-seok, an attorney at Daeyang Immigration Law Firm, said, "Korean companies are repeatedly failing to send the necessary workforce despite investing tens of trillions of won in the United States. The government should actively pursue visa quota negotiations with the United States."