3 hours ago 2

South Korean Leader Warns of U.S. Investments After Hyundai-LG Plant Raid

You have a preview view of this article while we are checking your access. When we have confirmed access, the full article content will load.

President Lee Jae Myung made the comments as hundreds of South Korean workers swept in an immigration raid were expected to fly home on Thursday.

A man in a black suit sits behind a lectern and speaks into a two microphones as a few people in the audience raise their hands.

Sept. 11, 2025Updated 4:42 a.m. ET

President Lee Jae Myung of South Korea said on Thursday that if Washington does not ease visa requirements for workers from his country, its businesses would hesitate to build new factories there, his strongest warning since a U.S. immigration raid in Georgia rattled South Korea.

Mr. Lee’s comments came as South Korea sent a chartered plane to repatriate hundreds of its workers who were detained last week by U.S. immigration officials at an electric vehicle battery plant under construction. A Korean Air flight carrying 316 South Korean workers is scheduled to leave Atlanta around noon on Thursday, Mr. Lee said. It is expected to land at Incheon International Airport outside Seoul on Friday afternoon local time.

South Korean businesses investing in the United States were “flummoxed” by the raid of the Hyundai-LG plant in Ellabell, Ga., Mr. Lee said during a news conference in Seoul on Thursday. The detained South Koreans “were there not as long-term or permanent workers but as technicians who helped install facilities and equipment,” he said.

These skilled workers were needed to build the plant and get it operational, he said. “But you can’t find them in the United States. Nor does it give visas for them to stay and work.”

Many foreign businesses have long circumvented the problem by dispatching workers on more easily available short-term business visas or under a visa waiver program.

But last week’s immigration raid underlined the risks of that approach. U.S. immigration officials said that the South Koreans working at the Hyundai-LG plant were doing so illegally, undermining the chances of American citizens to find jobs.