South Korean Hyundai workers detained in raid leave Atlanta on flight home : NPR
A Korean airplane plane carrying Korean workers detained during an immigration raid to Georgia Factory leaves Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport in Atlanta for South Korea on Thursday.
George Walker IV / AP
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George Walker IV / AP
ATLANTA – A plane carrying more than 300 workers from South Korea who were detained during an immigration raid in a Georgia battery factory last week, Atlanta shortly before noon Thursday, bound for South Korea.
The workers traveled by bus to a detention center in southeast Georgia in Atlanta earlier during the day for their flight, which is expected to land in South Korea on Friday afternoon. The South Korea Ministry of Foreign Affairs said prisoners published by the American authorities include 316 Koreans, 10 Chinese nationals, three Japanese nationals and an Indonesian.
The workers were a part of around 475 people in last week’s raid on the battery under construction on the campus of the Hyundai sprawling automotive factory west of Savannah. They had been detained in an immigration detention center in Folkston, 285 miles (460 kilometers) southeast of Atlanta.
South Korea President Lee Jae Myung called for improvements to the Visa System in the United States on Thursday, saying Korean companies will probably hesitate to make new investments in the United States until it occurs.
Lee said at a press conference that Korean and American officials had a back and forth discussion to find out if the detainees should be handcuffed while they went by bus to Atlanta-something that Koreans “were strongly opposed”. He said there was also a debate on the fact that they would leave the “voluntary departure” or the expulsion.
While these discussions were underway, US officials began to return the personal effects of detainees. Then, however, “everything suddenly stopped,” said Lee, adding that it was told that this was due to the instructions of the White House.
“President Trump had ordered that the (detainees) should be allowed to return home freely and that those who did not want to go there should not be,” he said. “We were told that because of this investigation, the process was interrupted and that the administrative procedures were modified accordingly.”
An official of the South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the diplomatic process, said that Trump had interrupted the process to hear South Korea to find out if Koreans should be allowed to stay to continue their work and help train American workers or should be returned to South Korea.
Lee said the United States had given detainees a choice between staying at home. In the end, a South Korean national who has parents in the United States has chosen to stay, said Lee.
The Trump administration’s expulsion program included a series of workplace raids, but it stood out from its scope and the fact that the target was a manufacturing site that state officials presented the largest economic development project for Georgia. Hyundai Motor Group began to make electric vehicles a year ago in the $ 7.6 billion factory, which employs around 1,200 people.
A plane takes off with Korean workers who were held at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport in Atlanta on Thursday.
George Walker IV / AP
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George Walker IV / AP
In a statement on Wednesday, the Governor’s office Brian Kemp highlighted his “solid relationship with the Republic of Korea and the Korean partners like Hyundai, go up to the creation of the Georgia commercial office in Seoul.”
“We are grateful that they would reiterate their commitment to respect all state and federal laws, just as we remain determined not to authorize this unhappy incident to cancel the decades of mutually beneficial partnerships that we have built together,” said a spokesperson.
The detention of South Korean nationals has also made the raid unusual because they are not often taken in the measures to apply immigration.
The video published by US Immigration and Customs Smart on Saturday showed a caravan of vehicles heading to the site, then federal agents ordering workers to align themselves outside. Some detainees were ordered to put their hands against a bus while they were fried and then chained around their hands, ankles and the waist. Others had plastic links around their wrists while riding a georgia content bus.
