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Around 450 illegal migrants were arrested Thursday in a major immigration enforcement raid at a Hyundai electric car battery factory in Georgia, Atlanta’s Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives announced.
Several other agencies, including U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Homeland Security Investigations, took part in the raid at the Hyundai–LG Energy Solution battery plant construction site in Ellabell, which is located about 20 miles outside Savannah.
The raid is considered the largest such action at a U.S. manufacturing site in years and follows major raids at other workplaces over the last few months under the Trump administration.
The facility, a $4.3 billion to $7.6 billion Hyundai–LGES joint venture, is slated to supply batteries to Hyundai’s nearby Savannah EV plant and stands as the largest single industrial investment in Georgia’s history.
Workers are escorted by federal agents following an immigration raid at Hyundai’s battery plant construction site in Georgia. (ATF Atlanta)
FEDERAL AGENTS ARREST HUNDREDS AT HYUNDAI PLANT CONSTRUCTION SITE IN GEORGIA
Construction at the site, which stretches over 3,000 acres, has been suspended, but there was no interruption at the adjacent EV manufacturing facility.
The South Korean foreign ministry expressed “concern and regret” over the raid and sent a counselor and embassy officials to the location.
“Our companies’ economic activities and our people’s rights should not be infringed unfairly in the US legal enforcement process,” Lee Jae-woong, a spokesperson for South Korea’s foreign ministry, said on Friday, according to the Financial Times.
A view of the Hyundai Motor Group facility in Georgia, part of a multi-billion-dollar EV and battery project. (The Associated Press)
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Georgia State Patrol troopers blocked roads to the Hyundai site. The Georgia Department of Public Safety confirmed to the Associated Press that they were dispatched to assist federal authorities.
The raid comes after South Korea agreed to $350 billion worth of investments in the U.S. as part of a trade deal struck in July.
The battery plant under construction is scheduled to begin operations at the end of this year, LGES told the Financial Times.
Federal agents detain workers during an immigration raid at the Hyundai battery plant construction site in Ellabell, Georgia. (ATF)
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“We are closely co-operating with the South Korean government and relevant authorities to ensure the safety of our employees and staff at contractors, and to secure their swift release from detention,” the company said. Fox News Digital has reached out to Hyundai and LGES for additional comment.
Video posted to social media Thursday showed workers in yellow safety vests lined up as a man wearing a face mask and a tactical vest with the letters HSI, which stands for Homeland Security Investigations, tells them: “We’re Homeland Security. We have a search warrant for the whole site.”
“We need construction to cease immediately,” the man says. “We need all work to end on the site right now.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.