WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump on Sunday warned foreign companies to obey US law after some 300 allegedly illegal South Korean workers were arrested at a Hyundai-LG battery plant being built in the southern state of Georgia. The arrests were made in a raid by US authorities on Thursday during the largest single-site operation implemented so far under Trump’s nationwide anti-migrant drive.
“Please respect our Nation’s Immigration Laws,” the president posted on social media. “Your Investments are welcome, and we encourage you to LEGALLY bring your very smart people… What we ask in return is that you hire and train American Workers.”
Footage of the raid showed detained workers, in handcuffs and with chains around their ankles, being loaded onto a bus.
LG Energy Solution has said 47 of its employees had been arrested — 46 South Koreans and one Indonesian. The company has also said about 250 of those arrested were believed to be employed by its contractor, and most of them were South Koreans.
South Korea, Asia’s fourth-biggest economy, is a key automaker and electronics producer with multiple plants in the United States.
Its companies have invested billions of dollars to build factories in the United States in a bid to access the US market and avoid tariff threats from Trump.
President Lee Jae Myung met Trump during a visit last month, and Seoul pledged $350 billion in US investment in July.
Trump has promised to revive the US manufacturing sector, while also vowing to deport millions of undocumented migrants.
While admonishing investors to abide by the law, Trump appeared to acknowledge a skill deficiency in the domestic work force.
“ICE was doing right because they were here illegally,” he said of the raid by Immigration and Customs Enforcement that has strained relations with South Korea.
“But we do have to work something out where we bring in extras so that our people can be trained so that they can do it themselves.”
Seoul said Sunday that negotiations to secure the release of the detained workers had been concluded, and they would soon be freed and flown home.
“The immediate priority now is the swift release of both our LG Energy Solution employees and those of our partner firms,” company executive Kim Ki-soo told reporters before boarding a plane to Georgia earlier in the day.
Hyundai has said none of those arrested are its employees.
