SAVANNAH, Ga. — About 475 people were detained in an immigration enforcement action at a Hyundai factory in Georgia on Thursday, according to the Department of Homeland Security.
In a press briefing Friday, the special agent in charge of the effort said the department executed a judicial search warrant as part of an ongoing criminal investigation into allegations of unlawful employment practices at the factory where the South Korean auto giant manufactures electric vehicles.
“This operation underscores our commitment to protecting jobs for Georgians and Americans, ensuring a level playing field for businesses that comply with the law, safeguarding the integrity of our economy and protecting workers from exploitation,” Homeland Security Special Agent in Charge Steven Schrank said Friday.
No criminal charges have been filed in what Schrank said was the largest single-site enforcement operation in the history of Homeland Security investigations.
A majority of the 475 people who were detained were South Korean nationals, and all were illegally present in the United States or working unlawfully in the country, Schrank said. He added that they had entered the country through a variety of means, including illegally crossing the border, entering through a visa waiver that prohibited them from working and overstaying visas.
“Each individual was questioned on their status,” Schrank said. “Their documents were checked.”
Those determined to be illegally present have been turned over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement for removal.
The arrests were the result of a monthslong investigation conducted through a collaboration of agencies, including the Department of Homeland Security; ICE; the U.S. Labor Department; the FBI; the Drug Enforcement Administration; U.S. Customs and Border Protection; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms; the IRS; the U.S. Marshals Service; and the Georgia State Patrol.
Thursday’s raid targeted one of Georgia’s largest and most high-profile manufacturing sites, touted by the governor and other officials as the largest economic development project in the state’s history. Hyundai Motor Group, South Korea’s biggest automaker, began manufacturing EVs a year ago at the $7.6 billion plant, which employs about 1,200 people, and has partnered with LG Energy Solution to build an adjacent battery plant, slated to open next year.
ICE spokesman Lindsay Williams confirmed that federal authorities conducted an enforcement operation at the 3,000-acre site west of Savannah, Georgia. He said agents were focused on the construction site for the battery plant.
In a televised statement, South Korea’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lee Jae Myung said the country is taking active measures to address the case, dispatching diplomats from its embassy in Washington and consulate in Atlanta to the site, and planning to form an on-site response team centered on the local mission.
“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,” he said.
At an event with President Donald Trump earlier this year, Hyundai announced it would invest an additional $5 billion in the United States, on top of an already announced $21 billion it had committed for U.S. investments from 2025 to 2028. The company plans to build a new steel plant in Louisiana, expand its U.S. auto production and create a robotics innovation hub.
Trump’s administration has undertaken sweeping ICE operations as part of a mass deportation agenda. Immigration officers have raided farms, construction sites, restaurants and auto repair shops.
The Pew Research Center, citing preliminary Census Bureau data, says the U.S. labor force lost more than 1.2 million immigrants from January through July. That includes people who are in the country illegally as well as legal residents.
Hyundai and LG’s battery joint venture, HL-GA Battery Company, said in a statement that it’s “cooperating fully with the appropriate authorities” and paused construction of the battery site to assist their work.
Operations at Hyundai’s EV manufacturing plant weren’t interrupted, said plant spokesperson Bianca Johnson.
Susan Carpenter, Associated Press
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