𝗜𝗖𝗘 𝗗𝗘𝗧𝗔𝗜𝗡𝗦 𝗢𝗩𝗘𝗥 𝟰𝟬𝟬 "𝗛𝗔𝗥𝗗𝗘𝗡𝗘𝗗 𝗖𝗥𝗜𝗠𝗜𝗡𝗔𝗟𝗦" 𝗔𝗧 𝗚𝗘𝗢𝗥𝗚𝗜𝗔 𝗛𝗬𝗨𝗡𝗗𝗔𝗜 𝗙𝗔𝗖𝗧𝗢𝗥𝗬

 by Jim Barton    Sources: National Public Radio, British Broadcasting Corporation, BORDER REPORT

          

Trump and his goons are so damn proud!  In what federal authorities are calling the largest single-site immigration raid in U.S. history, as many as 475 workers, mostly South Koreans, were detained Thursday at the 3,000 acre Hyundai electric vehicle (EV) facility in Ellabell, Georgia. 

The raid, led by Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), was part of the Trump administration’s ongoing crackdown on undocumented labor, a policy effort that has taken ICE agents everywhere from tomato fields to five-star kitchens to root out the "hardened criminals" that work in our fields and kitchens and build Korean vehicles. 

Steven Schrank, special agent in charge of HSI in Georgia, proudly described the successful raid during a Friday press conference:“This was, in fact, the largest single-site enforcement operation in the history of Homeland Security Investigations,” he said, noting that it followed a months-long probe into “unlawful employment practices and other serious federal crimes.” 

According to Schrank, the sweep uncovered “hundreds of individuals” working without legal documentation, many of them Korean nationals employed not directly by Hyundai, but through a network of subcontractors. Because nothing says “threat to American jobs” quite like a group of foreign welders and electricians helping to build batteries for electric vehicles.

The facility, operated in partnership with South Korea’s LG Energy Solutions, currently employs about 1,200 people. Production at the EV plant wasn’t affected by the raid, but construction of the adjacent battery plant was paused., 

South Korea, unsurprisingly, is not amused. The country’s foreign ministry expressed “concern and regret” over the incident and dispatched embassy staff from Washington, D.C. and consular officers from Atlanta to the site. “The economic activities of our companies investing in the U.S. and the rights and interests of our nationals must not be unfairly violated,” spokesperson Lee Jae-woong said.

Seoul has since contacted the U.S. Embassy to call for “extreme caution” in handling its citizens. “The business activities of our investors and the rights of our nationals must not be unjustly infringed in the process of U.S. law enforcement,” Lee reiterated Friday.

The raid represents a particularly uncomfortable collision between two of Donald Trump’s favorite talking points: restoring American manufacturing and punishing undocumented immigrants. On the one hand, Hyundai’s $7.6 billion investment in Georgia, touted by Republican Governor Brian Kemp as a massive win for the state, is exactly the sort of high-profile foreign capital injection that the administration has sought, but, on the other hand, those EVs don’t build themselves.

ICE spokesperson Lindsay Williams confirmed that the detained individuals are currently being held at a facility in Folkston, Georgia.  

“This was not an immigration operation where agents went into the premises, rounded up folks and put them on buses,” insisted Schrank. 

All in a day's work for Trump's crack ICE operation in the "Land of Opportunity."