A South Korean charter plane touched down in Atlanta on September 10, 2025, poised to repatriate hundreds of Korean workers swept up in a dramatic U.S. immigration raid just days earlier. Yet, as the jet idled on the tarmac, the fate of the detained workers—most of whom were mechanics and engineers brought in to help build a massive battery factory—remained shrouded in uncertainty. The planned departure, once scheduled for Wednesday afternoon, was abruptly postponed due to complications on the American side, leaving families and businesses on both sides of the Pacific anxiously awaiting resolution.
According to the Associated Press, the raid on September 4 at the Hyundai and LG Energy Solution battery plant in Ellabell, Georgia, marked the largest workplace sweep yet in the U.S. Homeland Security agency’s ongoing mass deportation efforts. Authorities detained 475 workers, more than 300 of them South Korean nationals, sending shockwaves through Seoul and igniting a diplomatic scramble. The detained workers, many of whom were employed by contractors to install production lines, were held at an immigration detention center in Folkston, Georgia, some 285 miles from Atlanta, where the chartered Korean Air Boeing 747-8i awaited their arrival.
Images released by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) showing workers shackled with chains around their hands, ankles, and waists sparked deep outrage in South Korea. As CNN reported, the outcry was not limited to the political class; opinion columns, social media, and even small street protests reflected a sense of betrayal from a nation that has long prided itself on being one of America’s closest allies. "It’s really no way to treat your friends," said Cho Hee-kyoung, a law professor at Seoul’s Hongik University, capturing the mood of many Koreans who saw the images as a slap in the face.
The timing of the raid could hardly have been more sensitive. Just ten days earlier, South Korean President Lee Jae Myung and U.S. President Donald Trump had met in Washington, reaffirming their countries’ partnership. In late July, South Korea had pledged hundreds of billions of dollars in U.S. investments as part of a new trade deal aimed at offsetting tariffs and fostering deeper economic ties. The battery plant at the heart of the raid is one of more than 20 major industrial sites South Korean firms are building in the U.S., a testament to the countries’ intertwined economic futures.
Yet the raid has exposed persistent friction over immigration and labor policy. U.S. authorities claim that some of the detained workers had illegally crossed the border, while others had overstayed visas or were working in violation of visa waiver terms. According to BBC, the vast majority of those detained were mechanics installing production lines, employed by contractors and brought over on short-term visitor visas or through the Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA)—a practice that, while technically out of bounds, had been tolerated for years due to chronic shortages of specialized American workers.
Atlanta immigration attorney Charles Kuck, who represents several of the detained South Korean nationals, told AP and CNN that the work these specialists perform is highly technical. “No company in the U.S. makes the machines used in the Georgia battery plant,” Kuck explained. “So they had to come from abroad to install or repair equipment on-site—work that would take about three to five years to train someone in the U.S. to do.” Kuck further noted that his clients were engineers who had traveled to the U.S. for specific, short-term assignments as part of contracts with Hyundai, not to settle permanently or take jobs from Americans.
The legal limbo has left both governments scrambling for a solution. South Korean officials have been in active negotiations with their U.S. counterparts to secure "voluntary departures" for the workers, rather than formal deportations that could bar them from returning to the U.S. for up to a decade. As AP reported, three buses were observed parked outside the Folkston detention center, ready to transport the workers to Atlanta once the green light is given. But the South Korean Foreign Ministry announced on Wednesday that the plane could not depart as planned, citing unspecified U.S. procedural delays.
South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Hyun traveled to Washington for high-level talks, meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio. While the State Department’s official readout did not mention the incident, it did reaffirm America’s welcome of South Korean investment and a desire to deepen cooperation. Meanwhile, LG Energy Solution instructed its Korean employees in the U.S. on B-1 or B-2 visas not to report to work and advised those on ESTAs to return home immediately—a clear sign of the chilling effect the raid has had on foreign firms operating in the U.S.
Back in Seoul, the episode has prompted calls across the political spectrum for a more robust visa system to accommodate skilled Korean workers. The conservative Chosun Ilbo called for formal negotiations to secure visa quotas, while the left-leaning Hankyoreh accused the Trump administration of “double-dealing”—demanding massive capital infusions from Korea while intimidating the very companies making those investments. Even more centrist voices, like Hankook Ilbo, warned of the growing "Trump risk" for Korean investors in the U.S.
Some American lawmakers have taken note. In July, Representative Young Kim of California introduced the "Partner with Korea Act," which would create 15,000 E-4 highly skilled work visas for Korean nationals, provided employers demonstrate the positions cannot be filled by Americans. The bill, however, remains stalled in committee.
President Lee Jae Myung, addressing his Cabinet, expressed a "big responsibility" over the raid and voiced hopes that South Korean businesses would not face unfair treatment again. “Unjust infringements on the activities of our people and businesses,” Lee called the detentions, according to CNN. Still, Lee’s administration has opted for rapid diplomatic engagement rather than open confrontation, mindful of the 28,500 U.S. troops stationed in South Korea as a bulwark against North Korea.
For now, the workers remain in detention, their return home delayed by a tangle of legal and diplomatic hurdles. The episode has laid bare the complexities of global investment, immigration enforcement, and alliance politics in an era when economic and security interests are deeply entwined. As the Korean Air plane waits in Atlanta, the world watches to see how two allies—bound by history but tested by circumstance—will resolve a crisis neither side can afford to ignore.