The United States has for years pressured South Korea to invest billions of dollars in U.S. industry, a push that has only increased over the past few months.
That made it all the more shocking for South Koreans when they learned that U.S. immigration officials had raided the construction site of a major Hyundai-LG plant in Georgia on Thursday, arresting hundreds of South Korean citizens.
U.S. officials said they had arrested 475 people during the raid, in Ellabell, Georgia, because they were in the country illegally or working unlawfully. Most of them were South Korean nationals who had been sent to help finish building an electric car battery factory, according to industry officials familiar with the project. Most, they said, were subcontractors working for carmaker Hyundai and battery maker LG Energy Solution, South Korean companies that share ownership of the plant.
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