On Thursday, a chartered Korean Air flight took off from Georgia carrying 316 South Koreans, 10 Chinese nationals, 3 Japanese citizens, and an Indonesian. It also took the future of Georgia’s automotive industry with it.
On September 10, 2025, federal agents from almost every single alphabet agency one can name stormed onto a construction site near Savannah, Georgia. The plant, up to that point expected to go operational next year, would supply Hyundai and Kia hybrid and electric vehicles with batteries. Hyundai and Kia vehicles that are being manufactured next door. With plans to expand the battery plant to supply South American manufacture as well. The plant promised 6,000 to 8,500 jobs for the Savannah area. Jobs to be filled by Americans.
That all changed when immigration authorities and their alphabet friends raided the plant and detained over 475 workers. With four warrants for four Hispanic individuals, garnered after a “months-long investigation,” federal agents shut down an entire multi-billion dollar project and detained hundreds of people. Most of which, reportedly, had work visas and were there in an advisory capacity for the very technical requirements that go in and around an advanced technology plant. Workers which were released from custody after a week of detainment. Workers whose release was not a deportation. Which means they were not likely here illegally or doing illegal things. Importantly, charges were not filed against most of those detained for the week.
The plant, which would have ultimately employed up to 8,500 Americans when completed, is now on hold. The workers with the expertise to get it built have left the country. After a week of detainment by federal agents and an extra day thanks to President Trump attempting to convince them to stay, those workers are gone. Were I in those workers’ shoes, I’d not return to finish the job. Why risk it?
Gone also is the prospect of South Korea continuing to invest billions into the U.S. South Korean President Lee Jae Myung said “As things stand now, our businesses will hesitate to make direct investment in the United States.” The country’s businesses had pledged to invest about $350B into the U.S. For its part, Hyundai has suspended business travel to the U.S. and recalled all of its South Korean nationals.
Wherever you stand on the political spectrum, immigration policies that include “detain and worry about legality later” is not conducive to either the ideal of freedom nor the economics of today’s global markets. The raid on the Hyundai-LG battery project has shown foreign investors that putting money into the U.S. is a risky venture. Building things in other, more stable environments might be better.
The current version of Homeland Security and Immigrations and Customs Enforcement have single-handedly destroyed relations with one of our closest allies and business partners. And likely the automotive industry in Georgia. And perhaps elsewhere in the U.S. as well.
