South Korean President Li Jae Meonging ordered “comprehensive efforts” to respond to the arrests of hundreds of her citizens in a migration raid at the Hyundai facility in Georgia, where the main American partner and commercial partner faded from the news.
Federal agents and immigration arrested 475 people – most of them citizens of South Korea – during the implementation of a judicial inspection note as part of a criminal investigation into an alleged illegal work in the facility.
At the Emergency Government meeting on Saturday, South Korea Foreign Minister Zhou Hyun said he was “very concerned” and felt “with severe responsibilities because of the arrest of our citizens.”
He said that the government had created a response team and that he was ready to travel to Washington to meet officials if necessary, with the repetition of the previous observations made to me that the rights of the South Koreans “should not violate unfairly.”
The raid, part of the Trump administration’s escalating campaign on immigrants, was the largest enforcement in the same sites in the history of the Ministry of Internal Security.
Sea of HSI agents, immigration enforcement, customs and other federal agencies on Thursday came to the site in Ellabell, where Hyundai and LG Energy Solution builds a joint battery factory next to their manufacturing facility for electric cars.
LG Energy Solution said on Saturday that 47 of its employees were arrested, 46 of whom are Korean. She added that 250 other employees of “partner companies”, most of them Koreans, were also seized.
The company said: “We are making every effort on all fronts to immediately version of employees and partners who have been detained,” adding that she suspended the travel of employees to the United States and has already urged “to return home or stay in their places of residence.”
Hyundai said none of the detainees was working directly by the company.
Charles Cook, a Atlanta -based immigration lawyer, representing two South Korean citizens, told NBC News on Friday that his clients were in the United States in the visa waiver program that allows tourism or business of up to 90 days.
“I am convinced that none of these men does not violate their position in any way,” Cook said, adding that each of his clients are operations engineers who came to attend meetings related to building the new factory.
No criminal charges have been made regarding the investigation from Friday.
The incident threatens to renew relations with South Korea, which is the 10 largest economy in the world.
The raid came just 11 days after a summit between Trump and Mendi at the White House, as South Korea companies pledged $ 150 billion in US investments. In July, Seoul pledged 350 billion dollars in US projects in an attempt to reduce the threatened Trump tariff, which was later set by 15 %.
Gang Dong Hyuk, leader of the opposition People’s Force Party, warned in a Facebook post on Saturday that the raid “could lead to broader repercussions on South Korean companies and societies throughout the United States.”
He said: “This incident goes beyond a simple campaign against illegal immigrants, which is a very dangerous issue,” and urged the government to protect “Koreans abroad and businessmen’s rights.”
He added: “While many South Korean companies build factories and expand investments throughout the United States, the repeated collective arrests of workers will inevitably escalate to a danger at the national level.”
The party’s spokesman described the raid as a “diplomatic disaster” and asked whether South Korea “slapped it after huge investments.”
Choson Elebo, the largest Daily in South Korea, suffered a similar tone, and setting arrests as betrayal and severe blow to South Korea.
“After investing in” Trump Maga “, what was no longer the arrest of 300 Koreas,” read the address.
White House spokesman Abeel Jackson told NBC News on Friday that President Donald Trump is still committed to “making the United States the best place in the world to do business, with the implementation of federal immigration laws.”