(The Center Square) – The status of 475 people detained at the Hyundai-LG Battery plant in Georgia is still in question nearly five days after the operation.
A Korean Air jet is expected to leave Wednesday for the trip to the U.S. to take home the estimated 300 South Koreans detained by officials during the operation in Bryan County that included officers with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, The FBI, the Drug Enforcement Administration, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the Georgia State Patrol, according to published reports. Authorities released no names or information on any of those detained.
Thursday’s operation was the result of a lengthy investigation and officers had a court order, Steven Schrank, special agent in charge of Homeland Security Investigations for Georgia and Alabama. It was the large operation of its kind in the history of Homeland Security, he said.
“This was not a immigration operation where agents went onto the premises, rounded up folks and put them on buses,” Schrank said. “This has been a multi-month criminal investigation where we have developed evidence, conducted interviews, gathered documents and presented that evidence to the court in order to obtain a judicial search warrant.”
Charles Kuck, founder partner with Atlanta-based immigration firm Kuck Baxter, told CNN that some of the people detained had only been there for three days and were leaving this week. Some were also working legally under a B-1 business visitor visa, he said.
“ICE did not do a very good job of preparing for this raid,” Kuck told the network in a video posted on the law firm’s Facebook page.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security did not return a message asking for more information about the current and future status of the detainees.
President Donald Trump weighed in on the raid in a Truth Social post on Sunday.
“Following the Immigration Enforcement Operation on the Hyundai Battery Plant in Georgia, I am hereby calling on all foreign companies investing in the United States to please respect our nation’s immigration laws,” Trump said in the post. “Your investments are welcome, and we encourage you to legally bring your very smart people, with great technical talent, to build world class products, and we will make it quickly and legally possible for you to do so. What we ask in return is that you hire and train American workers.”
