South Korea says it will fly detained Georgia plant workers home

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WASHINGTONTens of South Korean workers at a Hyundai-LG battery plant in Georgia, who were detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), will soon return to their homeland.

About 475 people, including more than 300 Koreans, were detained at an under-construction battery facility about 30 miles northwest of Savannah on September 4. Federal officials stated that the workers violated various immigration laws, with some illegally crossing the U.S. border and others in the country on tourist visas that do not permit employment.

In televised remarks on September 7, South Korea’s Presidential Chief of Staff Kang Hun-sik said negotiations with the U.S. had concluded, and the workers would fly home after completing additional administrative procedures. They will depart for South Korea on a chartered plane, he added.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

In a unique start to his ruling against President Donald Trump’s administration on September 30, U.S. District Court Judge William Young included a scanned handwritten note sent to his office. The note read: “Trump has pardons and tanks – what do you have?” At the top of Young’s opinion in AAUP v. Rubio, which ruled that Trump’s effort to deport foreign-born student protesters was unconstitutional.

October 8, 2025

The raid on the HL-GA Battery Company plant was the largest single-site workplace enforcement operation in Department of Homeland Security history. Video released by U.S. ICE showed shackled workers being escorted onto buses.

Federal officials stated during a September 5 news conference that the operation primarily targeted criminal violations of employment laws, not immigration actions.