It doesn’t make any sense. Last week, the Trump administration executed the largest single-site immigration raid in U.S. history at a Hyundai Motor-LG Energy Solution battery plant in Ellabell, Georgia.
The surprise raid antagonized South Korea, one of America’s closest allies and a country that had signed a $350 billion trade pact with U.S. President Donald Trump just weeks earlier. It contradicted Trump’s stated immigration policy of removing the "worst of the worst” by detaining workers employed to help meet Trump’s goal of expanding manufacturing in the U.S. And by releasing video footage of South Korean nationals shackled at the wrists and ankles, Immigration and Customs Enforcement managed to humiliate South Korean businesses and investment firms that had recently pledged billions to expand operations in the U.S.
What’s the upside? It’s hard to see one. Automakers with factories in the U.S. are counting on EV battery deliveries to meet demand. Trump is hoping to stimulate foreign investment in American manufacturing. This raid helps achieve neither.
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