It was a scene that played out with all the drama of a made-for-TV moment: more than 300 South Korean workers, many in shackles, being led away from a sprawling Hyundai battery plant in Ellabell, Georgia. The images, disseminated by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), quickly ricocheted across news outlets and social media, igniting outrage in South Korea and confusion among business leaders and immigration experts in the United States. The date was September 4, 2025, and the fallout from the raid is still reverberating through diplomatic, economic, and political circles.
Just a week after the raid, nearly all the detained workers were released and most were flown back to South Korea. But the international incident has cast a shadow over President Donald Trump’s twin ambitions: to make America the world’s top destination for foreign investment and to enforce a hardline immigration agenda. As reported by the Associated Press, the episode has left allies fuming, experts scratching their heads, and policymakers scrambling for solutions.
The numbers behind the controversy are staggering. South Korea, already a major investor in the U.S., pledged a jaw-dropping $350 billion in American projects as part of a trade deal announced in July 2025. According to the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, South Korea was the world’s twelfth largest investor in the U.S. last year, with $93 billion in total investments—including acquisitions and, crucially, new construction. In fact, in 2022, no other country invested more in building factories on previously undeveloped American land.
So what exactly went wrong in Georgia? The answer, as with many issues at the intersection of immigration and economic policy, is complicated. The Hyundai plant, hailed by Georgia officials as the state’s largest-ever economic development project, was in the midst of a rapid build-up. As has been common practice for decades, Hyundai sent technical specialists and skilled workers from South Korea to help get the factory up and running. This approach has long been routine for foreign automakers—Japanese, German, and others—as well as for American companies launching overseas operations. Lee Branstetter, a professor of economics and public policy at Carnegie Mellon University, explained to the Associated Press, “Japanese managers, senior engineers, other technical experts had to come to the United States to set this stuff up.”
But this time, the U.S. government took a different tack. ICE agents descended on the site, detaining hundreds of workers and broadcasting footage of some being led away in chains. The spectacle drew immediate condemnation. “It’s really baffling to me why this raid would have occurred,” said Ben Armstrong, executive director of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Industrial Performance Center, in an interview with the Associated Press. Retired immigration lawyer Dan Kowalski was even more blunt, calling the operation “100% performative” and suggesting it was about “wanting to look tough—arresting as many foreigners as possible for the photo-op.”
For South Korea, the incident was more than just a diplomatic embarrassment. President Lee Jae Myung, speaking on September 11, 2025, warned that delays in issuing visas to technicians and skilled workers could force Korean companies to reconsider their American ambitions. “Establishing a local factory in the United States will either come with severe disadvantages or become very difficult for our companies,” Lee said, according to the Associated Press. “They will wonder whether they should even do it.”
It’s a warning that strikes at the heart of Trump’s economic strategy. The president has repeatedly touted hefty tariffs—including a 15% levy on South Korean imports—as a way to force foreign companies to set up shop in the U.S. But as the Associated Press notes, the administration’s zeal for workplace immigration enforcement and visa restrictions could alienate the very allies it needs to fulfill its economic promises. The White House, for its part, insists that both priorities can be reconciled. “President Trump will continue delivering on his promise to make the United States the best place in the world to do business, while also enforcing federal immigration laws,” spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said in a statement.
In the aftermath of the raid, both governments have been working to patch things up. During a meeting in Washington in the week following the incident, South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Hyun and U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio agreed to establish a joint working group to create a new visa category that would make it easier for South Korean companies to send staff to American plants. Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau also planned a visit to Seoul to continue discussions, according to the Associated Press.
The underlying problem, many experts say, is the complexity and rigidity of America’s visa system. Kevin Miner, an immigration lawyer based in Atlanta, explained that U.S. work visa categories are a maze of restrictions: some operate on a highly competitive lottery, others are capped, and many are limited to executives or seasonal workers. Short-term visas, meanwhile, often come with strict limits on employment. “Our visa system does not envision this kind of scenario,” said Julia Gelatt, associate director of the U.S. immigration policy program at the Migration Policy Institute. “The goal,” added MIT’s Armstrong, “should be to make foreign direct investment as streamlined as possible.”
Charles Kuck, a lawyer representing several of the detained South Koreans, insisted that the “vast majority” of those workers were doing work authorized under a visa program. U.S. authorities, however, have maintained that the workers were “unlawfully working” at the plant. The disconnect highlights the urgent need for reform, a point echoed by both business leaders and immigration advocates.
Trump himself has tried to reassure foreign investors, telling them to “LEGALLY bring your very smart people” and promising to “make it quickly and legally possible for you to do so.” But as the events in Georgia demonstrate, the reality on the ground is still fraught with uncertainty, red tape, and, as some critics charge, political theater.
The stakes are high—not just for the companies involved, but for the broader U.S. economy. Foreign direct investment has long been a driver of American jobs and innovation, and South Korea’s recent surge in factory construction is a case in point. Yet as the diplomatic dust settles, the question remains: can the U.S. balance its desire for investment with its determination to police its borders? Or will scenes like those at the Hyundai plant become the new normal, with allies left wondering if America is still open for business?
The coming weeks will reveal whether the new visa working group can deliver a solution—or whether the fallout from the Georgia raid will continue to cast a shadow over America’s industrial ambitions.
