On Wednesday (September 10), South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Hyeon stated that the United States and South Korea will discuss establishing a new visa category to prevent a repeat of the issue where South Korean workers setting up factories in the U.S. were detained.
On September 4, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and other law enforcement agencies conducted raids at the construction sites of joint battery plants of Hyundai Motor Group and LG Energy Solution in Georgia, detaining 475 workers, with approximately 300 of them being South Korean citizens.
After meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio at the White House on Wednesday, Cho Hyeon received assurances from the U.S. side that these workers would not face adverse effects from the detention when applying to re-enter the U.S. in the future.
South Korea arranged for a charter flight to repatriate the workers on Thursday (September 11) and ensured that they would not be handcuffed while being transferred from the ICE detention center to the airport. This was considered a special arrangement as, under normal procedures of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, immigrants being deported are handcuffed and shackled. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security and State Department did not comment on this.
Cho Hyeon also mentioned that both the U.S. and South Korea would use this incident as a case study to discuss the establishment of a new visa category for South Koreans.
According to a statement from the South Korean Foreign Ministry, during the meeting with Rubio, Cho Hyeon requested that South Korean workers be allowed to promptly leave the U.S. without handcuffs. He expressed to Rubio that the detention of South Korean workers who came to “contribute to technology and assist in revitalizing U.S. manufacturing” had left the South Korean people feeling both “hurt and shocked.”
The statement emphasized Cho Hyeon’s strong request for the U.S. government to provide special attention and support, allowing the detained South Koreans to quickly leave the U.S. without limitations like handcuffs as they are not criminals.
As per the South Korean Foreign Ministry, Rubio informed Cho Hyeon that President Trump had instructed him to “expeditiously negotiate and take action to meet South Korea’s demands as much as possible.”
While Rubio did not mention immigration issues in his briefing after the meeting with Cho Hyeon, he emphasized that the U.S. welcomes Korean investments, and both sides discussed promoting a fair reciprocal trade partnership. The briefing also noted discussions on expanding “equitable defense burden sharing,” with the U.S. hoping for South Korea to shoulder more of the costs of U.S. troops stationed in South Korea.
White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt was asked by the media on Tuesday (September 9) whether there would be changes to the U.S. visa system, to which she responded that the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Commerce were studying the matter.
President Trump stated on social media on Sunday (September 7) that if foreign companies comply with the U.S. Immigration Law, the U.S. will “quickly and legally allow” their employees to enter the country.
The South Korean Foreign Ministry mentioned that representatives from companies such…
Most of the workers detained this time were employees of subcontractors involved in the project. According to Yonhap News Agency, these South Korean workers would depart the detention center by bus early Thursday morning and board a charter flight arriving to pick them up at noon to leave the U.S. Several Japanese and Chinese nationals were also arrested during the raids.
(Adapted from reports by Reuters and Yonhap News Agency)