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South Korea probes rights violations in US factory raid

Felix Tamsut with Reuters, AFP
September 15, 2025

Trade unions in Seoul demanded an apology from President Trump after some 300 South Korean workers were detained by US immigration police known as ICE. Trump said he does not want to "frighten off" foreign investment.

Immigration authorities arrested 475 people in a raid on a Hyundai manufacturing site in Ellabell, Georgia on September 5, 2025
Footage of the arrests received criticism in South Korea (FILE: September 5, 2025)Image: ATF Atlanta/ZUMA/IMAGO

South Korea will look at possible human rights violations against Korean nationals working for a Hyundai factory in the state of Georgia, Seoul's presidential spokesperson said Monday.

More than 300 South Korean citizens were held for about a week, before being discharged and making a return home later.

As part of the raid — the largest of its kind since US President Donald Trump's crackdown on migrants — Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials arrested some 475 factory workers, most of them from South Korea, allegedly due to overstaying their visas or holding permits that didn't allow them to perform manual labor.

Footage of the arrests resulted in criticism in South Korea, with Seoul repatriating the workers almost a week after their arrest, and South Korean President Lee Jae Myung saying the arrests could discourage future investment in the US.

South Korea's trade unions demanded an official apology from Trump for the arrests. The incident prompted outrage across the country, particularly after Seoul promised to make major investments in the US in July to avoid massive tariffs threatened by Trump.

How did President Trump react?

President Trump said he doesn't want to "frighten off" investors, and that foreign workers sent to the US are "welcome."

"I don't want to frighten off or disincentivize investment," the US leader posted on his Truth Social account, adding the circumstances for temporarily allowing foreign experts in the US to support the development of "extremely complex products" such as chips, semiconductors, computers and trains.

"We welcome (foreign experts), we welcome their employees, and we are willing to proudly say we will learn from them, and do even better than then at their own 'game' sometime in the not too distant future," Trump said, without pointing to specific policy changes that would make the US a less intimidating place for foreign workers.

Edited by: Elizabeth Schumacher

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