Still think mass deportation has no economic or political consequences? The fallout from last week’s blunderbuss raid on a Hyundai plant in Georgia continues to reverberate in South Korea, and it pays to listen to President Lee Jae Myung’s remarks this week.
More than 300 South Korean workers were sent back to South Korea on Thursday after being arrested in an immigration raid on a battery factory next to the Hyundai plant. “This could significantly impact future direct investment in the U.S.,” Mr. Lee said at a news conference. South Korean companies “can’t help hesitating a lot” about making new investments in the U.S. if their workers are liable to end up in detention facilities.
Companies often bring in skilled workers to get factories up and running and to train local staff. “It’s not like these are long-term workers,” Mr. Lee continued. “When you build a facility or install equipment at a plant, you need technicians, but the U.S. doesn’t have that workforce and yet they won’t issue visas to let our people stay and do the work.”
Trump relented and said he’d allow Koreans to come in temporarily but I’m going to guess they aren’t going to have a whole lot of takers especially after Howard Lutnick said the whole thing was Hyundai’s fault for not following the rules. Why would anyone trust his word on such a thing after everyone in the country now knows that Stephen Miller’s sadistic program led to this, as reported in the Korean press:
Their waists and hands were tied together, forcing them to bend down and lick water to drink. The unscreened bathrooms contained only a single sheet to cover their lower bodies. Sunlight barely penetrated through a fist-sized hole, and they were only allowed access to the small yard for two hours. Detained by US immigration authorities for eight days, the workers and their families expressed shock, describing human rights violations and absurdities they could not have imagined as ordinary Koreans living in 2025.
The 330 workers detained in a crackdown on illegal immigrants at a Hyundai-LG Energy Solutions joint battery plant in Georgia, USA, returned home on the 12th, and reports of human rights abuses they suffered during their detention are pouring in. Their testimonies from the 14th revealed a detention facility that violated all internationally recognized minimum standards for detainee treatment (Nelson Mandela Rules), including hygiene, communication with the outside world, the ability to raise objections, and the ability to explain the situation.
The arrest process itself was absurd. No one could properly understand the situation because there wasn’t even a basic explanation, such as a Miranda rights notice. Mr. Seo, a 40-year-old employee at an LG Energy Solutions subcontractor, said, “I didn’t even know I was under arrest. I thought it was a procedure to confirm my identity, but they asked me to sign some document.” The family of Mr. K (48), an employee at another subcontractor, said, “They said they saw the word ‘arrest’ on the document and whispered that they shouldn’t do it, but the agents were holding guns, so they ended up signing anyway.” Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, who confiscated personal belongings such as cell phones in ‘onion net’-like pockets, reportedly tied the workers’ arms and legs with chains, and when that wasn’t enough, they used ‘cable ties’ to restrain the workers.
It was so bad that even the Trump administration is apologizing.:
A senior U.S. state department official on Sunday expressed regrets over the recent mass detention of South Korean workers in America and vowed to prevent similar occurrences.
According to Seoul’s foreign ministry, Landau conveyed his deep regrets over the detention of hundreds of South Korean workers in an immigration crackdown earlier this month at an electric vehicle battery plant construction site for a joint venture between Hyundai Motor Group and LG Energy Solution in Bryan County, Georgia. A total of 316 South Korean workers returned home Friday, after being held in a detention center for a week…
Landau also said U.S. President Donald Trump has a keen interest in the matter and ensured that those who have returned home will not face any disadvantages when reentering the United States. The state department official said Washington would try to ensure there would be no further incidents of a similar nature in the future.
They’ll try. That’s nice. I’m going to guess that not one of those workers will be coming back. And considering how the Korean public is taking this, it would be unlikely that anyone else will be volunteering.
The only reason Trump gives a damn about this is because of the factories S. Korean manufacturers are threatening to close down or build elsewhere. Otherwise, he’d be happy to let Stephen have his fun. He is certainly letting him do whatever he wants with immigrants from other countries. The meaner the better.
If only the left would get with the program of sadistically treating anyone the regime sees as enemies with equal fervor everything would be fine.
Update:
I wrote about the S. Korean visit last week. it was a trainwreck.