Seoul – South Korea says that the United States agreed to release hundreds of Koreans who fell in the largest migration raid last week.
The South Korean Chief of Staff, Kang Hoon-Sik, said on Sunday that the negotiators were negotiating talks with US officials to secure the launch of workers who were arrested in a federal immigration campaign at the Battery Maker factory in South Korea, LG Energy Solution and Auto Hyundai Bani in Georgia.
He said that workers can return to their homes on a rented trip early this week.
Kang said at a meeting with senior legislators and cabinet officials: “The South Korean government will remain ready and will remain on the situation with responsibility so that our citizens return to the homeland safely,” Kang said in a meeting with senior legislators and cabinet officials.
On Thursday, Federal agents arrested 475 people at the factory site in Iliapel, Georgia, more than 300 detainees who are South Korean citizens working by LG and its subconscious.
The campaign came at a time when the largest billionaires of South Korea pledged in new investments to enhance its manufacturing operations in the United States as part of a commercial deal reached by President Trump and his South Korean view Lee Jay Meong earlier this year.
Trump announced in late July that the customs tariff for most imports from South Korea will be only 15 % after South Korea has agreed to invest $ 350 billion in the main American industries and buy $ 100 billion in natural texture.
The fact that the raid targeted one of Korea’s most ambitious investments in we While the country is trying to increase its obligations quickly, its obligations to disbelief and discontent have pushed some in Seoul.
At a press conference held on Sunday, the ruling legislator OH Gi-Hyoung stated that the South Koreans should be treated at a level of respect in proportion to the situation of their country as a major ally and an American investor.
The United States is currently the largest share of foreign investment in South Korea, with $ 26 billion last year, according to the Ministry of Finance in South Korea. South Korea is currently the United States 8 bigger A commercial partner, where the two countries exchange 242.5 billion dollars of goods and services last year.
“If the United States really wants to attract investment from South Korean companies, things like this cannot occur,” Ohh said.
In a statement issued on Friday, the US Prosecutor’s Office in the southern region of Georgia said that the operation-which was the largest raid in one location in the history of the Ministry of Internal Security-was part of an initiative at the country level “to repel the invasion of illegal immigration” known as the operation in America.
Ice said that those arrested have been found that they are illegally working, and many of them are on “short -term or recreational visas”, which do not allow visitors to work.
As of 2022, there were about 110,000 unauthorized immigrants in South Korea living in the United States, representing 1 % of the total, according to the data collected by the Pew Research Center.
Even if there is a quick release of workers, South Korea experts said that this heavy measure can affect how the Asian nation sees its commercial relationship with the United States
Industry experts say that the campaign can lead to logistical challenges for each of the ongoing and future efforts by South Korean companies in the United States
South Korea recently announced a $ 150 billion project to help revive the American shipbuilding industry. There are also approximately 10 other battery factory projects that are underway throughout the United States
For years, companies here have sent their technical specialists to oversee the construction of American factories using non -work travel permits such as ESTA (or electronic travel license), a visa that allows tourists to stay in the country for up to 90 days.
Although technical visas do not allow holders to work, “has been tolerated for a long time by the American authorities,” Hyang said in the song, an industrial policy expert at the Korea Institute of Technology, a government research tank.
South Korea companies have long complained that the laws required for workers who have been sent as a consumer of time and challenges.
For example, a H-1B visa, which allows people to work, is granted by a knockout time per year. Obtaining one has become increasingly difficult during the Trump era, which restricted his eligibility under the banner of “buying America, American employment”.
“The South Korea companies are reluctant to walk on this road because it takes at least 8 months of the deadline before they can work on the H-1B, and there is nothing to ensure that you will get it,” said Chun Jong John, the Korean-based American immigration lawyer in Washington.
Huang said it is almost impossible to find enough Americans with the necessary skills for American factory employees in South Korea, such as the manufacture of Lithium ion batteries or shipbuilding.
“As of now, there is no way other than sending experienced specialists in South Korea for help.”
After the release of the detained workers, South Korea officials said they would follow up on American work permits for South Korean citizens.
Chile, Australia and Singapore have special work visa programs that allow its citizens to work in specialized roles in the United States
Until then, it is possible that arrests in the Georgia batteries factory will mean months of delayed delay, as the joint project is struggled to re -publish workers.
“In the event of LG Energy, they will have to think twice before their workers are sent to the Georgia factory,” Hangan said.