US immigration authorities arrested nearly 500 employees of a South Korean battery maker in Georgia Thursday, in what the Department of Homeland Security described as its largest-ever immigration raid.
Most detainees were South Korean employees of LG Energy Solution, which is engaged with Hyundai in a joint venture that Georgia’s Republican governor has touted as the “largest economic development project in state history,” The New York Times wrote, signifying a clash between President Donald Trump’s desire to revive American manufacturing and his escalating immigration crackdown.
The arrests also raised alarm in Seoul, further complicating tense US-South Korea relations over investments agreed to in their trade deal, the Financial Times reported.
“The economic activities of our investment companies and the rights and interests of our citizens must not be unjustly violated during US law enforcement proceedings,” a Korean diplomat said Friday, as Seoul dispatched diplomats to the site.