South Korean workers tell BBC panic and chaos during Hyundai raid

A South Korean worker witnessed massive immigration operations at a Georgia auto factory, saying he was panic and confusion at the BBC as federal agents landed on the scene and arrested hundreds of people.

The man demanded anonymity, at the time a factory owned by Hyundai and LG Energy Solutions, when Immigration and Customs Enforcement Officers (ICE) arrested 475 people, including 300 South Korean nationals, some of whom were taken to the chain.

He said he first realized the raid Thursday morning when he and his colleagues got a call from the company’s boss. “Multiple phone lines are ringing, and the message is a shutdown operation,” he said.

It was the biggest incident of its kind as the raid spread since President Donald Trump returned to the White House, the man said panicked family members tried to contact workers.

“They were detained and they left all their phones in the office. They got the call, but we couldn’t answer because [the office] Locked up,” he said.

According to U.S. officials, some workers tried to escape, including several jumping into nearby sewage pools. They divide them into groups based on nationality and visa status, and then process and load on multiple coaches.

About 400 state and federal agents gathered outside the sprawling $7.6 billion factory complex, about half an hour from Savannah before entering the site around 10:30 Thursday.

The 3,000-acre complex opened last year, where workers assembled electric vehicles. Immigration officials have been investigating illegal employment practices of electric vehicle battery plants suspected of being built in the compound.

Officials said the operation ended up being the largest single-site immigration enforcement action in the history of homeland security investigations, adding that hundreds of people who are not allowed to work legally in the United States are detained.

The BBC Verification has been reviewing videos posted on social media, apparently shot inside the battery factory.

A video shows men lined up in the room wearing masked men, wearing vests with abbreviated HSI – Homeland Security Investigation – and holding an intercom, holding an intercom, telling them: “We are the Department of Homeland Security and we need to provide search warrants for the entire website. We need to stop construction immediately, and we need to finish all work on the site immediately.”

The BBC verified met the worker who has the right to work in Savannah, the nearest U.S. city.

The man said he was “shocked, but not surprised” by the immigration action. He said the vast majority of the workers in custody were mechanics who installed production lines on site and were hired by contractors.

He also said a few arrested persons were dispatched from their headquarters in Seoul and had been undergoing training that the BBC could not confirm.

The man said he believes almost all workers have legal rights in the United States, but the visa type is wrong or their right to work has expired.

The BBC has contacted Hyundai and LG Energy solutions for comment.

In a joint statement issued by Hyundai and LG Energy Solutions said they were “combining with the appropriate authorities for relevant activities on our construction sites. To help them with their work, we stopped construction.”

Hyundai also said, “Based on our current understanding, none of those are directly hired by Hyundai.”

It added that it is “committed to fully comply with all laws and regulations in every market we operate.”

The BBC Verification also contacted the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) for comments for more details on why workers were detained and what they were doing at the factory.

Steven Schrank said Friday, the day after the raid, the Icefield Agents in charge of the operation said all 475 detainees were “illegal in the United States.”

He said they were “workers” who have entered the United States through various means, some illegally crossing the border, some banned from working through visa exemptions, and some have visas and are overpriced”.

The raid was called by officials’ “Low Voltage Operation” and its target was a battery factory built at the same location as the existing Hyundai Motor Factory.

ICE released videos of the raid, showing federal agents arriving at the armored vehicle and lined up outside the factory, some of which were linked together and then linked together before loading onto the coach.

Other images show that two men are obviously trying to escape, and another man is dragged out of the water by agents he talks to in Spanish.

The workers we talk to said he expressed sympathy for those detained, but he said the crackdown was not surprising under the Trump administration. “Their slogan is first and foremost, and if you work in the United States legally, you won’t have any problems,” he said.

The man said the time and administrative barriers involved in obtaining a U.S. visa encouraged foreign companies to cut corners to complete projects on time, but may now require a reassessment.

“I mean, after this happens, many companies will consider investing in the U.S. again, because it may take longer to build a new project than before,” he said.

When the BBC visited the site over the weekend, there were few signs of raids on Thursday, although two security teams asked us to keep going when shooting from the curb.

The electric vehicle factory in Ellabell, Georgia is a huge complex that has dominated the landscape since the project was announced in 2022 and has been a major source of employment.

Georgia Republican Gov. Brian Kemp praised the $7.6 billion complex, calling it the largest economic development project in the state’s history.

The impact of the joint venture is reflected in the revival of the Greater Savannah Korean American Association. “It’s a growing community,” said Cho Dahye, president of the association.

Ms. Dahish became a U.S. citizen in the 1980s and is also known for her American name Ruby Gould.

She hopes that the raid at her door will not have a greater impact on relations in the South of the United States. “It shocked me very much, it is the image of a global, well-known company,” she said.

Other reports by Aisha Sembhi and Woongbee Lee