Yeah, we get that.
But there’s no reason for them to do it. Trump is appalling because he expels people for being of the wrong ethnic group. If Korea retaliated by doing exactly the same thing, then they would be as bad as he is. It would serve no possible purpose, other than as a protest. Strong words of condemnation would be just as effective. It could only have negative effects, no positive outcome.
Agreed.
Trump’s minions didn’t exactly expel the Koreans. What they did was to throw them into a highly unpleasant jail. Then Trump said oops, I see we need you guys to stay and set up this factory so Americans can work there long-term, just as planned. The Korean workers effectively did a quick risk-benefit analysis and decided the U.S. was not the kind of country they wanted to work in even for a short time
I doubt Korean authorities can retaliate, by doing exactly the same dumb thing, because they aren’t in a nativist panic and thus lack needed cruelty.
I saw a meme wherein a South Korean electrician that was caught up in the ICE raid at the Hyundai plant that is under construction in Georgia said that he will never visit the United States again. (I don’t blame him.)
It made me wonder: I’ve seen the news, and I know what happened; but it’s national news. But what are they saying locally? The plant is outside of Savannah, right? What are the Savannah news outlets saying? (Hopefully, that it’s a disaster for the region and that the jobs outlook isn’t looking promising. My Trump cultist FB frienemy lives in Savannah.)
How did the South Korean workers get in the situation? Were they here on tourist visas although they were here to build the plant?
Looking at the website of one of the area’s TV channel shows a lot of current stories:
I’m not sure what you’re expecting, though.
As I understand it, they were here on a business visit (e.g. like one might do to go attend a meeting or a conference). While on a business visit, you’re not allowed to perform any manual labor - just talk to people and the like.
Again, as I understand it (per Gemini), they were doing something like installing and verifying new equipment. As part of that, they did some amount of manual labor. Historically, that’s been considered to be the same as a business meeting, in that you’re just running a verification step, not actually cranking out cars by the thousands for sale. It wouldn’t be practical to run a factory on 30 day visas, having to fly people in and out constantly.
Sorry, I was at work and in a meeting. I wasn’t expecting anything. I was just curious if they said anything about potential job losses or other economic downsides to the raid.
From what I’ve read it appears that the deported Koreans were carrying out tasks necessary to make the plant function, with particular skills that native-borns lack. If no Koreans with the required knowledge are willing to come back to get the job finished, even with promises from ICE et al. that a raid won’t happen again, or despite corporate pressue to go, what happens to the plant? Will Hyundai be forced to take the hit and walk away from the project?
No, it would be too big of a money hit for Hyundai. And the company has a too big to fail status in South Korea.
The South Korean government cannot afford for Trump to feel insulted by their country. That’s a big difference between the foreign government perspective and posters here.
See:
Hyundai CEO says ICE raid on Georgia plant set back its grand opening by two or three months
It will make cars of all brands a bit more expensive, but we will never know by how much.
I’ve been involved in tons of pharmaceutical tech transfers, and the chemists routinely go into the production areas and labs to show the receiving entity how to do things. And unless the location requires a visa for any entry, we never ever got visas for it. We send chemists and engineers a couple of weeks at a time, rotating them in and out.
And some of this was done when I worked for some of the largest pharma companies in the world.. So it’s interesting to learn that this may not have been entirely kosher?
Were they being paid in the country where they were doing the instruction, or being paid to their bank in the United States?
That can make a difference to the analysis.
I think all this fine analysis is beyond the capability of ICE today. They’re furriners; they’re over here is all it takes. Look at the ones expelled although they had valid tourist or work visas. Hell, native-born citizens have been expelled.
I don’t know, but I’ll hazard a guess that these people were paid by Hyundai Korea, as that’s who they worked for, and did not even have bank accounts in the US. They were at the plant temporarily, to set it up, and train US workers.
It’s like you went to Europe on business trip for a month - why would you set up a European bank account when you were paid by your company back home?
The New York City comptroller and 10 Democratic legislatures were tied up with zip ties and arrested after attempting to use their congressional oversight to inspect an ICE processing facility that has been reported, by detainees, as being unsafe and unsanitary.
https://www.politico.com/news/2025/09/18/ice-nyc-protest-00572418
This does not sound like a lawful arrest. This sounds like an illegal detainment.
Time for actual police to be used to protect legislators from masked gangs.
ICE goons violently throw a Democratic congressional candidate to the ground and round up two people to take them to God knows where during a protest at an ICE processing facility in Chicago.
For those not quite clear on where this is happening - this is the ICE facility in Broadview, Illinois, about 12 miles outside Chicago proper.
The 5:00 news shows are trying to avoid showing the ‘tear gassing of protesters’ story right now. ‘Oh we can’t show that before dinner tonight.’
A bit of good news here in Ohio:
Don’t know which ones you’re watching, but the ones where I live aren’t having a problem with doing that. Or at least the NBC affiliate isn’t. Then again, they’ve been showing an unedited clip of what Kimmel said to get kicked off the air at least twice an hour during the morning newsfest and again at the evening ones.
At least for now.