South Korea announced on Sunday that the roughly 300 of its nationals detained during an immigration raid in Georgia would be released and flown home, as the sudden detention of workers appeared to strain the longstanding diplomatic and economic relationship between the two nations.
Nearly 500 workers, among them at least 300 South Koreans and at least 23 Mexicans, were arrested at the Hyundai-LG battery plant in the city of Ellabell on Thursday.
US authorities released footage of the raid, which showed detained workers, restrained in handcuffs and ankle chains, loaded on to buses.
The raid marked the largest single site sweep carried out under Donald Trump’s nationwide anti-immigration campaign.
“As a result of the swift and united response … negotiations for the release of the detained workers have been concluded,” Kang Hoon-sik, chief of staff to South Korea’s president Lee Jae Myung, told reporters.
“Only administrative procedures remain. Once these are completed, a chartered flight will depart to bring our citizens home,” he said.
LG executive Kim Ki-soo flew to Georgia in an apparent effort to slow the fallout. “The immediate priority now is the swift release of both our LG Energy Solution employees and those of our partner firms,” Ki-soo reportedly said before boarding a plane.
LG Energy Solution said 47 of its workers had been detained, of whom 46 are South Koreans and one Indonesian. Approximately 250 of those detained are thought to be employed by LG Energy Solution’s contractor, the majority of which are South Koreans.
South Korean officials said that US officials’ dissemination of images from the raid was unfortunate, given that both countries’ leaders recently met to discuss trade.
Park Yoon-joo, South Korea’s first vice foreign minister, reportedly told US secretary of state for political affairs, Allison Hooker, that it was lamentable the raid unfolded “at a critical time, when the momentum of trust and cooperation between the two leaders, forged through their first summit, must be maintained”.
“The economic activities of our companies that have invested in the US and the rights and interests of our citizens should not be unfairly infringed upon during the course of US law enforcement,” Park also said, according to a foreign ministry statement.
Trump’s comments on the raid risked further stoking of tensions between the US and South Korea. “I would say that they were illegal aliens and Ice was just doing its job,” Trump commented when questioned about the raid.
The immigration raid also appears to fly in the face of officials’ recent push for South Korean investment in the US. South Korea and the US recently brokered a trade agreement, part of which is a $250bn fund to assist South Korean companies come into American markets.
Trump might also travel to South Korea in October for an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting, per CNN.
South Korea said it would try to streamline visa access for its nationals to work in the US to “prevent a similar incident.”
