Immigration

Guardian -  South Korea’s president, Lee Jae Myung, has ordered “all-out efforts” to respond to the arrest of hundreds of its citizens by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) during a raid at a factory being built in Georgia to manufacture car batteries.

Cho Hyun, the foreign minister, said the government had set up a taskforce following the arrest of 300 South Korean nationals.

He would travel to Washington if necessary and felt a “heavy responsibility” over the arrests, he added.

The raid, in which US immigration officials said Ice arrested about 475 workers, also sent alarm bells ringing for South Korea’s LG Energy Solution (LGES), which suspended its employees’ business travel to the US after 47 of its employees were detained. The factory manufactures batteries to power Hyundai, Kia and Genesis electric vehicles.

NY Times - Immigration authorities arrested hundreds of workers for a major South Korean battery maker at a Hyundai plant in Georgia, U.S. officials said on Friday, calling it the largest-ever Homeland Security enforcement operation at a single location.

Agents on Thursday arrested 475 people, most of whom are South Korean citizens, at a construction site for an electric vehicle battery plant in Ellabell, Ga., near Savannah, Steven Schrank, a special agent in charge of Homeland Security Investigations for Georgia, said at a news conference.

The raid was the culmination of an investigation that took place over several months, he said.

Mr. Schrank said that the workers arrested were in the United States illegally or were working unlawfully. No criminal charges would be announced on Friday, he said, adding that investigators were still determining employment details for those arrested, some of whom worked for subcontractors.