🔋🚨 In a major sweep on Thursday, federal, state and local agents descended on a 1,214-hectare Hyundai battery plant west of Savannah, Georgia, detaining over 475 workers without legal status—most of them from South Korea 🇰🇷.
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Georgia, officers executed a search warrant and uncovered hundreds of “unauthorized workers”—people working without a valid visa or beyond its allowed stay. The operation aims to curb illegal employment, protect vulnerable workers from exploitation and ensure fair play for businesses.
Steven Schrank, special agent in charge of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) for Georgia and Alabama, noted this was a months-long probe into a network of subcontractors, with detained individuals working across multiple companies on site.
But here’s the twist: this raid spotlights a tension between two top priorities—boosting U.S. manufacturing (especially in hot sectors like EV batteries) and cracking down on illegal immigration. It could also add strain to U.S.–South Korea ties, since many of those detained are citizens of one of America’s key allies in Asia.
Why it matters for you 🌍: As EVs and green tech soar in South Asia and Southeast Asia, ethical supply chains and workers’ rights are front of mind. This incident shows how global production hubs, labor rules and geopolitics all collide—impacting the tech-filled future we’re all plugged into.
What’s next? Stay tuned for updates on legal proceedings, company responses and any diplomatic ripple effects. In the meantime, we’ll keep an eye on how these dynamics shape the fast-changing world of tech manufacturing and labor rights.
Reference(s):
Over 475 immigrants detained at U.S. Hyundai plant, most from S. Korea
cgtn.com
