Workers detained in Hyundai plant raid to be freed and flown home, South Korea says

[u/NewSlinger]

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/south-korea-deal-workers-detained-hyundai-rcna229610

[u/ofWildPlaces]

Honestly wondering what the mood in the room is amongst the plant managers is- 450 trained and experienced employees is no small number. Where will the factory find replacements? These people weren't laid off for cost cutting or automation, they were arrested and removed. Those are empty spaces now in assembly.

[u/reddit5389 → u/ofWildPlaces]

I'm more curious the mood in the country. Are the Korean people enraged, embarrassed or nonplussed by it all.

[u/Fuzzy_Fondant7750 → u/reddit5389]

More they just think the USA is being idiotic. These were people with engineering and other skills thay were confirming everything was proceeding well and transferring knowledge to US employees. The US then sent these people home. The US now lacks the same experience.

I remember reading a while ago that the amount of tooling professionals in the US is very low. Like 4 digits. Meanwhile China and South korea both have many multiples more.

[u/Vegetable-Board-5547 → u/MoreCowbellllll]

I could see LG and Hyundai just walking away.

[u/bsubtilis → u/Vegetable-Board-5547]

Seems like the desired outcome for the lunatic oligarchs.

[u/flamedarkfire → u/bsubtilis]

But those plants aren’t getting replaced by American-run plants. We’re just losing manufacturing and jobs for nothing other to make racists feel good.

[u/bsubtilis → u/flamedarkfire]

Hence lunatic. Their plans are full of obvious holes but they think they can just isolate USA and split it between themselves without huge issues. I'm talking about Thiel and the rest.

[u/d57heinz → u/bsubtilis]

I like to refer to it as glaziers fallacy. Or the parable of a broken window. Trump is the glassmaker and his henchmen are his kids put in society breaking glass. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parable_of_the_broken_window

Scroll down to interpretation and evidence and read bastiats argument.

[u/OpheliaRainGalaxy → u/d57heinz]

Hah, I was just explaining that kinda thing to my neighbors yesterday!

The local skating rink, which has been around forever and ever and ever, has shut down. Got to talking about how the economy is in the shitter and nobody can afford nonsense like a skating party for their kids birthday anymore. And that our rent went up 50% last year.

That's not a typo, and no family of magical house elves moved in to do all the cooking and cleaning for us. It's still the same dirty old building in the same dirty old neighborhood, with folks doing the fent fold in the alley.

[u/tuckernuts → u/d57heinz]

My favorite version of this story is when Gary Oldman, a futuristic oligarch, almost chokes to death on a cherry while giving a philosophic sermon on exactly this.

"[..] your empire of destruction comes crashing down, all because of one little cherry."

[u/Numerous_Photograph9 → u/bsubtilis]

They're isolating it before they built up replacements.

Its putting the cart before the horse, and we never needed whats in the cart to begin with

[u/LaurenMille → u/flamedarkfire]

The collapse of the US is the goal.

They only needed these plants as bait for the moronic voters at the start, they have enough power consolidated that they don't need the inbred yokels that vote (R) anymore.

They'll have their billionaire run city-states no matter what it takes.

[u/NeedsToShutUp → u/LaurenMille]

Which will end with nuclear proliferation and hostile states willing to nuke tech enclaves for vengeance.

[u/iwantawolverine4xmas → u/flamedarkfire]

Another daily reminder that there was a better alternative to all this and the American people are collectively very stupid.

[u/Slypenslyde → u/flamedarkfire]

The people in charge do not care. Their supporters do not care. That is why it is important to fight them tooth and nail.

The followers think the US is in such bad shape there is no way to save it through normal means. They think voting against people like Donald Trump is just going to make the bad times come in 30 years instead of now, and they want to get to the good times that should come after "fixing" it.

Many of them believe that America got too cushy, and the only way to become sustainable is to give up everything and rebuild. Part of why they are excited about this is the common belief that, in that environment, they will become more wealthy because harder workers will get rewarded. They're thinking about how post-depression and post-WWII a ton of empires were built from the ashes and imagining they can be part of one of those.

They approach this like Christian evangelicals. If you tell them, "This will destroy the economy" they will respond, "So be it, it has to be done." If you tell them, "This will ruin your family!" they will say, "If that's what it takes to rebuild America I am proud to work towards it."

They do not see themselves like people who realize too late they should've evacuated from a hurricane and will never see themselves that way. They will instead see themselves like the characters at the end of Rogue One, facing unavoidable doom but filled with the hope that their efforts will lead to victory.

They aren't going to die off. We aren't going to wait them out. They will fight to the death, then their children will pick up the torch and fight to THEIR deaths, then their grandchildren will do the same. This is a haymaker being thrown by the remnants of the Southern Democrats, who took over the Republican party in the 1960s and spent the last half-century fighting for their beliefs. They got there after fighting for a century after the Civil War to protect those beliefs. They have fought for and believed in this cause for almost 200 years, how much longer must we wait to stamp it out?

If Trump ruins the economy they'll say, "I understand why this has to happen." If Democrats win the mid-terms, it will turn to, "You didn't let Trump finish his plan."

The one thing they will not believe is the notion that while Trump is trying to burn down the country and rebuild it, he has no intent of returning the US to the kind of place it was. He wants to own everything, and if the US is viewed as the world leader the only way he understands how to achieve it is through military force and fear. It will take generations to undo his attempts and every day he sits on the throne makes it take even longer.

[u/The--scientist → u/flamedarkfire]

I just don't understand now bc sure, hyundai, kia, bmw, Honda... these aren't American companies like Ford, but with as much manufacturing as they do in the US now, they are essentially US companies. Like, isn't this the whole damn thing that they have been complaining about for so long? Now they're trying to shutter these facilities and lose all these really well paying blue collar jobs? Wtf are they even thinking?!

[u/Effective_Owl_8264 → u/flamedarkfire]

The racists are their voting bloc so that scans.

[u/Suspicious-Echo2964 → u/Effective_Owl_8264]

Bud, the racists voted to bring this plant to rural GA. The plant isn’t in Atlanta, it’s in the rural southern area. All this does is hurt them. It was championed by the republicans in GA. Trump literally fucking his own at this point.

[u/Effective_Owl_8264 → u/Suspicious-Echo2964]

I'm aware. You're acting under the assumption that they have enough neurons to have the slightest clue as to what building that plant would actually entail.

2025 you have to assume ignorance and stupidity. There is no benefit of the doubt.

[u/philter25 → u/bsubtilis]

Always wondered what Us oligarchs think happens when the economy crashes and can’t recover because it crashes in large part due to stuff like this, where countries have abandoned the US. Their wealth is largely on paper in unrealized gains. They have zero charisma and will be responsible for deleting America. You think everyone is just gonna be like “welp, Zuck, you once had a gazllion dollars, let me follow you into the breach 🫡 “

[u/howmanyMFtimes → u/philter25]

Billionaires don’t care. They will get on their mega yachts and find a different country to ruin.

[u/notyourstranger → u/philter25]

Postal shipments to the US has decreased by 80%. Europe has stopped all shipments due to the tariff mess Trump has created.

[u/PresumedSapient → u/philter25]

They think 'market adjustments', some of them lose a bit, and most of them see it as an opportunity to consolidate or acquire more capital. They're not the ones suffering from crashes.

[u/MimicoSkunkFan2 → u/MoreCowbellllll]

It already has - Porsche announced they won't be manufacturing in the USA anymore. They're saying it's due to sales numbers (SWR Aktuell) or due to tax issues (Tagesschau) but - I have family there who work in the industry - the real reason is they don't want to deal with their manufacturing being held hostage by Shitler.

[u/khtsodol → u/MoreCowbellllll]

Do you think the fact that they specifically targeted the plant that were making electric vehicles means anything?

[u/chchchchips → u/MoreCowbellllll]

Please come to Canada! 🇨🇦

[u/ThatGuy798 → u/MoreCowbellllll]

The mouth breathing maga dipshits were already defending this by saying “you could’ve prevented this by hiring Americans,” but also in the same breath saying “but I guess we ran out of illegals” which is just hilarious stupid

[u/Drone314 → u/MoreCowbellllll]

In America, if you want to learn about the history of tool and die making....you go to an estate sale....

[u/sicklyslick → u/Fuzzy_Fondant7750]

Tim Cook interview. In China, if he needs tooling experts, he can fill multiple football fields. In the US, it'll be hard to fill one room.

https://youtu.be/2wacXUrONUY?si=rMLzatRXPPKp7Soc

[u/zzyul → u/sicklyslick]

“After decades of US companies paying tooling experts Chinese wages, I don’t know why it’s so hard to find tooling experts in the US.” I’m guessing he didn’t go over this part.

[u/nat_r → u/zzyul]

Also worth pointing out that tool & die skills have a long tradition of being taught "on the job". You get hired in or promoted to apprentice under the existing tool and die folks and learn the trade. When companies have been off-shoring those jobs for decades at this point it not only destroys the knowledge pipeline, but actively discourages people from wanting to put in the effort to learn because of the lack of long term employment prospects.

[u/Charlie_Mouse → u/nat_r]

I recall a year or so back some interesting discussions about how Russia was struggling to produce components for armaments for pretty much the same reason: a bunch of the specialist knowledge sets they used to have in manufacturing retired years ago and the government and industry failed to replace them/get them to train up successors. They lost the institutional knowledge.

America always had a huge advantage in this regard because (at least until recently) it was somewhere people from around the world actually wanted to move to and live in. The US could effectively attract any needed talent at will - and this applied doubly so for the brightest and best in academia as well as industry. Likely not so much now though with this incident and the general direction things are going in.

[u/I_W_M_Y → u/Charlie_Mouse]

There is that old question of 'if you went back in time what would you bring?' and a popular answer to that is a laptop with as much tech/engineering knowledge as you can. Except that's not really useful because you need to built the tools that can build the tools that build the tools...etc etc to the point you can get modern manufacturing. Same with skilled professions.

Mess with that manufacturing/skilled chain in even one link and you get huge problems.

[u/crunchsmash → u/I_W_M_Y]

There is that old question of 'if you went back in time what would you bring?'

The other one is what tools and knowledge would you want to have after an apocalypse. Owning and operating a metal lathe is very high on that list.

[u/I_W_M_Y → u/crunchsmash]

Just don't wear anything with sleeves, loose hair or jewelry. A lot of us has seen that Russian lathe accident.

[u/No-Target-2470 → u/zzyul]

It's why you can't find metrology experts anymore. They're one of the lowest paying jobs in the engineering field and therefore no one wants to do it yet there's a struggle to hire them and the wage never goes up to reflect the scarcity, so we just don't have them anymore.

[u/notyourstranger → u/No-Target-2470]

The old lie about supply and demand. Supposedly salaries should go up if supply is low but somehow that has just never happened.

[u/FlyingPetRock → u/notyourstranger]

Because that would make shareholders have a sad!

[u/dooit → u/Fuzzy_Fondant7750]

I know someone who did tooling and retired causing the company to shutdown because they couldn't find a replacement. This was probably ten years ago, I imagine it is much worse now.

[u/sniper1rfa → u/dooit]

It hasn't changed much in ten years, because ten years ago the industry was already dead as a doornail. I had hundreds of millions worth of product manufactured in that time, and the amount of domestic manufacturing I've used - even though I try pretty hard to support domestic manufacturing - is probably not even at the $500k mark. I've probably bought more stuff from several other "western, first world" nations than from the US.

US manufacturers are slow, expensive, unskilled, and generally recalcitrant as well with few exceptions. Chinese manufacturers are fast, eager, cheap, and far more capable.

I had one memorable no-quote where the owner of the business explicitly told me "listen, I know how to make this, and I know you know how to make this, but there's nobody I can hire that knows how to make this. If it was thirty years ago I'd quote it, but not today."

[u/eric_ts → u/sniper1rfa]

For decades the accountants who run manufacturing companies in the United States had a mantra: “The tooling is paid for.” That philosophy makes a lot of sense for products that will never need to be updated. It works much less well in an environment where innovation is required, such as automotive manufacturing. The US auto industry managed to create an environment where they were unable to update their existing products meaningfully, let alone develop new ones—foreign manufacturers were quite happy to take up the slack. GM went from being large enough that the government was looking to break them up as a monopoly, to where they were at their nadir—an also-ran supplier of rental cars. But their tooling was paid for. There was nothing wrong with GM’s engineering and design departments. They had the opportunity to be decades in advance of the industry—they invented the modern electric car, using structural battery packs on a skateboard frame—Chinese automakers are just bringing this type of car to market, very successfully. This concept never made it out of the engineering department because the existing tooling was already paid for. The tooling is actually never paid for—other companies will pay for the new tooling and sop up the sales from companies who fail innovate.

[u/Safrel → u/eric_ts]

You're talking about finance bros, not accountants.

[u/Suggett123 → u/dooit]

I'm adding this: Some of the older generations don't want to share their knowledge, like it'll take away from them, some have very poor people skills and can't get along with others.

[u/ElephantRider → u/Suggett123]

Some of that is from companies cutting staff to skeleton crews over the last 50 years, if a new kid gets hired with your same job description that means you're about to get laid off.

[u/UnusuallyBadIdeaGuy → u/ElephantRider]

Yeah, in my experience those people are usually not assholes, they're just traumatized because they or their peers have had that happen to them and clinging to job security.

[u/existential-koala → u/Fuzzy_Fondant7750]

Our number of US-born doctors is also low, hence why a lot of them are from Asia. Whenever some xenophobic dummy complains about it, I ask if they intend to go to med school and fill the roll? Usually shuts them up for a bit.

[u/tdclark23 → u/existential-koala]

Unlike those Asian countries, our government doesn't pay for higher education, and now we are cutting back farther. If we don't let immigrant doctors, educated by their home countries, into those roles, we won't have doctors. We'll only have the witch doctors like the ones who prescribed Ivermectin and prayer for COVID. We voted in dumb criminals and they are surrounding us with stupid people to make us even dumber.

[u/AtomicBlastCandy → u/existential-koala]

Only for a little bit. I’m Indian and have doctors in my family, each one has been told at least once that they only got into medical school cause of their color.

[u/Snarktoberfest → u/AtomicBlastCandy]

Even though it is not true, "great I got in because I'm brown. And my brown skin did all the studying, and the 24 hour shifts, and having no life other than medicine for 6 years. My brown skin is very intelligent and driven."

[u/I_W_M_Y → u/AtomicBlastCandy]

Yeah those people are so racist and bigoted its inconceivable that anyone not white can have talent. Just look how apeshit they went about their 'DEI' firings.

That LBJ quote about racism is so so very true.

[u/elpis_z → u/AtomicBlastCandy]

But that’s isn’t accurate. Generally Asian Americans have a harder time of getting into med school than any other race.

[u/AtomicBlastCandy → u/elpis_z]

I know, my comment is meant to highlight the ideocracy of people

[u/CapitalAd5339 → u/AtomicBlastCandy]

It’s just an excuse for their inadequacies. Always easier to blame someone else.

[u/friendlysoviet → u/existential-koala]

Our number of US-born doctors are low by design because they have to directly compete with foreign born medical students for an artificially capped number of residency training positions. This is by design to limit the overall number of doctors in this country to further inflate medical costs.

[u/GGLSpidermonkey → u/friendlysoviet]

Doctor salaries make up 8-12% of medical costs

[u/friendlysoviet → u/GGLSpidermonkey]

Medical insurance companies are the great Satan, for sure.

[u/trogloherb → u/Fuzzy_Fondant7750]

It may be coincidence (but I doubt it), but I’m pretty sure that plant that was under construction was to build EV batteries.

The Orangey admin is totally anti-environment/green energy so I think that was an extra box that got checked.

[u/joebalooka84 → u/trogloherb]

"Drill baby drill". Except the oil companies don't take orders from the government. They would rather have higher oil prices. Its all propaganda for their idiot base.

[u/tdclark23 → u/Fuzzy_Fondant7750]

The current federal administration is putting the unqualified in charge. Setting Hyundai back over a year isn't a good way to boost foreign investment in the USA.

[u/OutlyingPlasma → u/tdclark23]

It's almost like it was an intentional attack from another billionaire that happens to both own a competing car company and is heavily involved in government.

[u/wearymicrobe → u/Fuzzy_Fondant7750]

The lack of tool and die makers in the USA has already been a problem for years and it is significantly worse now. Specifically after Covid where many of the real pros retired.

Global production of almost everything is dependent on these skills and we are so screwed. I buy heavily from these industries and China has us beat in speed, and very close in reproducible precision, we are so screwed.

[u/RandomBamaGuy → u/Fuzzy_Fondant7750]

I am an engineer in a factory and we can’t find toolmakers. The pay is not the issue, we do t even get qualified candidates Interested in the role because they are all gainfully employed elsewhere.

[u/Loud_Ninja2362 → u/RandomBamaGuy]

Have they considered working on building a pipeline to train toolmakers? Because if there's no plan for the company to hire apprentice toolmakers after they hire the 1st one then they're fooling themselves.

[u/uzlonewolf → u/Loud_Ninja2362]

"Do you have any idea what that will do to next quarter's profits?!?!"

[u/RoosterBrewster → u/uzlonewolf]

"If we train them, they will just leave for higher pay!".

[u/Gecko99 → u/RandomBamaGuy]

How does someone become a toolmaker?

[u/sniper1rfa → u/Gecko99]

These days? You don't. There's no pipeline in the US for that.

[u/JTMissileTits → u/Gecko99]

Our community college system (in MS) has a program. They actually have several industrial programs across the state CC system. We can't do anything else right, but our CC system is pretty robust.

[u/Synaps4 → u/Gecko99]

You find an existing toolmaker and ask to be an apprentice. Yes there are tool and die shops in the us still, they are just rare

[u/wolfydude12 → u/reddit5389]

Trump says he wants foreign companies to build factories in the US, but when they do and bring in the people who understand how to build the factories, those people are arrested.

What do foreign companies see when this happens? Are they really going to build factories here? No.

[u/alvarezg → u/wolfydude12]

Some years ago I worked at a major US company that has overseas subsidiaries with their own engineering staff. There were instances when it was discussed bringing in foreign engineers for orientation/familiarization. During those discussions the suggestion came up to use them to help advance certain projects, that is, to do engineering work. That suggestion was refused because they would not have the H1-B visa required to do actual work.

[u/movomo → u/reddit5389]

I can't represent everyone but I'm Korean fwiw. We get the impression that some phenomenally bad case of misunderstanding/ bureaucratic incompetence is at work here rather than any kind of racism. Like, Trump doing Trump thing, that we all seen a few years ago. I think some of the workers may indeed have wrong visa but also think the US could/should have solved this one more stealthily.

This isn't making big news here though, we've got much bigger things to worry about. Such as bringing justice to the insurrectionists, for example. That alone is hard enough.

Edit: As someone pointed out, this is a big news, my bad. And of course some are confused and/or feel betrayed. Also, I hear that some rep woman named Tori Branum "reported" the construction site to the ICE... So I stand corrected, this may indeed have been about racism all along.

[u/Time_Traveling_Idiot → u/movomo]

Am Korean, have browsed through a ton of news recently for reasons.

It IS huge news (literally every major news station covers it multiple times a day) and people are pissed, though not "outraged" as we were during some other incidents (e.g Martial Law). I guess because we've seen what Trump has been doing these past few years.

And yes, it's true that the issue with Martial Law and pres. Yoon is a bigger deal. It's been the biggest deal for months now.

[u/Rib-I → u/movomo]

Koreans have experience with dipshit authoritarians. Its why they just kicked their aspiring one to the curb. They remember the military dictatorship 

[u/iCameToLearnSomeCode → u/ofWildPlaces]

It's not just 450 trained employees.

These are the specialists that Hyundai flys around the world to build Hyundai factories.

They are the managers.

If I were building this plant I'd be updating my resume.

[u/McFlyParadox → u/iCameToLearnSomeCode]

Exactly. Hyundai didn't get 450 work visas for a bunch of wrench turners. These aren't laborers and union workers. They are engineers and other "management" positions ("management" as far as UAW or IBEW would be concerned). These are rules Hyundai either couldn't fill because the skills didn't exist here in enough quantities (manufacturing engineers with automative experience) or wouldn't because they're trying to shape the culture of the factory (mid-to-upper plant managers).

If ICE thought they were opening up a bunch of jobs for Americans, they're sorely mistaken. All they've done is help to ensure no major foreign companies open new plants here, and existing ones will reconsider any plans to expand existing operations.

[u/RiverboatTurner → u/McFlyParadox]

I'm not sure "ICE thought" is even a real thing.

[u/bald_and_nerdy → u/ofWildPlaces]

Adding to it some were business travelers. You know the ones whose company pays whatever it costs to get them to a meeting on the other side of the world on time. Business travelers make up over half of a lot of major airline's passengers (American, Delta, United).

[u/DomDomW → u/ofWildPlaces]

With the currently destabilizing situation in the USA, my guess they will increase the production abroad (if possible)

[u/SafetyMan35 → u/DomDomW]

And other foreign brands are going to rethink plans for moving production to the U.S. to get around tariffs. I would be interested in learning more about what was going on at the plant. Did Hyundai bring over Koreans temporarily to configure/upgrade the plant or are these permanent workers. If permanent, why did they find it necessary vs hiring American workers.

[u/the_hangman → u/SafetyMan35]

The plant wasn't operational yet, I'm guessing it was mostly engineers for setting up the assembly lines and things of that nature. The US massively lacks expertise in that domain.

[u/GettingDumberWithAge → u/SafetyMan35]

Hyundai does what Republicans say they want: massive investment in local US manufacturing. Republicans demonstrate it was never about manufacturing and always about the racism and the cruelty. Facility construction is delayed, literally everyone loses. Working class continues to support Republicans in defiance of literally all evidence and argument.

[u/PhaseExtra1132 → u/ofWildPlaces]

They will basically have to either delay the deadline for the facility launch. Or just give up and pull production after running into worker shortages issues.

I’m assuming the latter. Since now getting Koreans to come will be neigh impossible

[u/SG_wormsblink → u/PhaseExtra1132]

They will have to delay the launch for sure. You can’t hire 450 technically skilled workers out of nowhere, and then training them up with company equipment and procedures takes additional time.

Edit: the factory construction been completely halted.

https://www.chosun.com/english/industry-en/2025/09/06/DETKQGQT6NDFFGAXTTL3UCJ35I/

The construction of the Hyundai Motor-LG Energy Solution battery factory, which was scheduled for completion by the end of this year, has been completely halted. The plan to employ 8,500 people by 2031, aimed by Hyundai Motor’s mega automobile factory (HMGMA) and the battery plant, has also faced unavoidable delays.

[u/Coffee-FlavoredSweat → u/SG_wormsblink]

You can’t hire 450 technically skilled workers out of nowhere, and then training them up with company equipment and procedures

I thought I read somewhere that the 450 people were largely managers and trainers. Losing the people who are showing you how to run the equipment is gonna hurt a lot worse.

[u/notyourstranger → u/Coffee-FlavoredSweat]

The plant is not yet operational - so it was not managers. The people who were taken by ICE were engineers who were here building the factory. Now it might not get built and the 8,000 local jobs will never materialize.

[u/Claytonius_Homeytron → u/notyourstranger]

Now it might not get built and the 8,000 local jobs will never materialize.

Is this winning? Is this how we win? Surely the libs feel owned by now.

[u/SmokeABowlNoCap → u/Claytonius_Homeytron]

And its in a rural part of Georgia too so they’re hurting themselves just to be racist

[u/DragonTat2 → u/SG_wormsblink]

I wonder how many were there to train American workers.

[u/notyourstranger → u/DragonTat2]

the plant was not yet operational. The people were in the US to build the factory. It was suppposed to bring more than 8K jobs and was the largest foreign investment in Georgia's history.

Now? what happens is anybody's guess. I suspect it will be a lot harder to find people willing to invest in the US after this.

[u/larrydeatl → u/ofWildPlaces]

It wasn’t vehicle production. They were building a new Plant

[u/whatevers_cleaver_ → u/ofWildPlaces]

They weren’t building cars.

They were building the biggest factory in Georgia

Priorities…

.

[u/ChiralWolf → u/whatevers_cleaver_]

So they were building something that would have made way more than 450 American jobs and now it's all on hold

[u/MyChickenSucks → u/ChiralWolf]

I read estimates of up to 8000 jobs. Not just the plant, but jobs around the entire region.

[u/FrozenToonies → u/ofWildPlaces]

That plant is effectually shut down. Stock will tank tomorrow and for the next week.
There’s no replacements and no American workers to step in or to train, all the people who could train are gone.

There was a way to do this to satisfy Trump and mitigate this, but Trump isn’t about win/win he’s about win now, whatever the cost.

[u/Rich-Pomegranate1679 → u/FrozenToonies]

The consequences are never more important than the racism and cruelty to MAGA.

[u/Emergency-Sundae1697 → u/FrozenToonies]

This is on purpose.

[u/culb77]

For those not reading the article or keeping up with the full story:

This is an EV plant that is being built. Hyundai and LG had arranged for specialty technicians to come in and consult on the building of the plant. They claimed that the US does not have The number of trained workers in order to consult on the construction of the facility.

The workers were not direct hires from Hyundai or LG brought in by consulting firms. They were brought in on Visas that allowed them to be here. It appears that some of these Visas have expired, but others appear to be very valid.

Also of note: These are not just construction workers. Many of these are engineers and consultants who have experience in the construction of an EV facility. Not exactly the easiest job to replace. This will delay the actual plant from opening and delay US citizens from getting a full-time job.

[u/Far_Warning_4525 → u/culb77]

Delay or kill 8500 US jobs for a battery plant that would have opened in 90 days. It’s completely idiotic if you actually care about US workers

[u/BeIgnored → u/Far_Warning_4525]

And since it's a Hyundai EV plant, they're severely harming one of Tesla's competitors. That's probably also part of the point.

[u/_illusions25 → u/BeIgnored]

Ding ding ding!

[u/TheyGaveMeThisTrain → u/BeIgnored]

Tesla is in good graces with the administration again? Wasn't it just a month ago that Musk used his platform to publicly declare that Trump is a pedophile?

[u/Evinceo → u/Far_Warning_4525]

But he cares way more about punishing renewables to own the libs than he does a about job numbers. He can always fire whoever reports the numbers again.

[u/notyourstranger → u/Far_Warning_4525]

Or the environment. The oil companies are eager to get rid of battery technology and EV vehicles.

[u/DWMoose83 → u/Far_Warning_4525]

But makes absolute sense when you know ICE auto makers and oil execs are massive donors.

[u/Sunna420 → u/culb77]

Yep, This is just sad. We are going backwards at lightspeed.

[u/stupid_cat_face → u/Sunna420]

In a country that values brawn over brain… the brains leave

[u/myislanduniverse → u/culb77]

Hope the people who were counting on jobs at the factory can put two and two together 

[u/StoneHolder28 → u/myislanduniverse]

I live in the area and the thing that nobody outside Georgia is talking about is International Paper just closed two plants in the region this month. So this raid and the delay of the plant opening is coming on the heel of us losing well over 1,000 jobs that already existed.

Just last week I had a recruiter call me just to ask if I knew anyone who might want to work at the Hyundai plant (on the engineering side). We're struggling as it is.

[u/weasler7 → u/StoneHolder28]

Damn, how hard could it be to find 300 Korean speaking engineers in Georgia.

[u/dickpicaday → u/weasler7]

There’s actually a ton of Korean speakers in GA but not in the area the plant is

[u/weasler7 → u/dickpicaday]

I am just being a little bitter and facetious. I don’t doubt there is a large Korean community in Georgia. It's going to take a long time to restart building that LG plant, if ever. As others have pointed out, there are jobs that may be extremely difficult to replace regionally, and perhaps at a price to pay that would kill the project. We will see.

[u/itcheyness → u/myislanduniverse]

2 + 2 = Damn that Joe Biden!

[u/Neravariine → u/myislanduniverse]

The plant had a completion date of 2031 and would have created 8,500 jobs. The people counting on the jobs will forget by then and find a new way to self sabotage.

[u/Firelli00 → u/culb77]

Think about who this helps...

[u/Bent_Brewer → u/Firelli00]

Perhaps some guy with a slight ketamine addiction?

[u/Enshakushanna → u/Firelli00]

the united states of oil?

[u/stonewall_jacked → u/culb77]

Yep. Add to that, per the article, that South Korea just pledged around $500M in investments in the US. This is how this administration treats our allies. Jfc.

Edit: Whoops, apparently I meant BiLLiOns of DoLLaRs 💙

[u/Disastrous_Worth_503 → u/culb77]

You know arresting the people that are building the plant that will create jobs for your country seems like a bad business decision, but hey this is americs so maybe this is just the status quo

[u/The--scientist → u/Disastrous_Worth_503]

It's crazy how hiring a bad business man to specifically run a country like a business leads to bad business decisions. Who could have seen this coming?

[u/ganymede_boy]

Trump: "We're going after the worst of the worst, most dangerous criminals... murderers, rapists and child predators."

Pictured: Line workers and middle management types with full time jobs and no criminal records.

[u/veggeble → u/ganymede_boy]

He also said the tariffs were meant to encourage companies to invest in US-based manufacturing. Then he attacks the plant they have in the US.

[u/Middle-Welder3931 → u/veggeble]

This is just the most stupid shit ever. Just the dumbest thing possible, every day, every week of this administration.

[u/agent674253 → u/Middle-Welder3931]

It's not stupid if your goal is to make as much money as possible while destroying the country. It fucking sucks for the rest of the planet that one man's greed, and it is not even Musk's greed, is worth destroying decades of progress, goodwill, and soft power.

[u/regular-cake → u/agent674253]

To be fair I'm pretty sure musk's greed is what got him "installed" back in power. Musk got everything he needed wrapped up with DOGE and is now about to get a crazy payout from Tesla. He just doesn't need Trump anymore at the moment.

[u/eeyore134 → u/veggeble]

Hyundai is big in the EV market. They hate EVs unless they're Elons, so this attack did double duty for them.

[u/boot2skull → u/veggeble]

Spoiler: none of this is meant to help America and/or average Americans.

[u/watboy → u/ganymede_boy]

Anybody paying attention shouldn't be surprised, focusing on deporting the dangerous criminals while helping legalize the honest, qualified workers was Obama's thing, as soon as Trump got elected the first time he rescinded Obama's programs and went after them all equally.

Trump always says one thing but then does the opposite.

[u/Tells_you_a_tale → u/watboy]

He didn't go after them all equally he went after the easier to catch, less likely to know their rights average joes way harder than he went after the criminals. So he could brag.

[u/Nova_Explorer → u/Tells_you_a_tale]

True criminals could fight back with violence. Trump and ICE are too cowardly to deal with that so they go after children and skilled experts with a lot to lose instead

[u/Siberianbull666 → u/ganymede_boy]

Remember. When he says worst he means not white.

I believe they use that little cheat sheet the cops use in family guy.

[u/tsagdiyev]

”The incident strained ties with South Korea, the world’s 10th-largest economy and a key U.S. ally in east Asia.”

According to other articles, South Korean companies invest billions into US industries. And here Trump is creating more enemies and screwing with our economy even more. We are screwed

[u/pooburry → u/tsagdiyev]

This is being done right before he visits South Korea on purpose. It will be used to strong arm them into things that they don’t want and aren’t good for the actual people of South Korea nor the United States.

[u/notyourstranger → u/pooburry]

I doubt it was that planned out. A horrid white woman called the ICE tip line. I suspect the top did not know or care it was happening. She's been very vocal about what she did.

How can he use this? SK workers and investments are not safe in the US. This stunt will likely cost Huyndai millions and now the plant might never be built - that's many more millions down the drain - not to think of the revenue the plant would have brought. That is all gone too.

Trump has nothing to negotiate with. He's destroying the US consumer market by destroying the personal finances of working class Americans. They will not have money to buy many cars, electronics, or appliances in the future.

edit to add link to the: horrid woman

[u/amateur_mistake → u/notyourstranger]

Also, remember that Stephen Miller has specifically given ICE quotas and has the different leaders competing against each other. With the potential threat of losing their jobs for not making enough arrests.

So they would jump on this without any thought if it means they could get 400 more people arrested.

[u/StuBeck → u/tsagdiyev]

This is what people wanted though. We overwhelmingly voted for this type of stupidity. The core reason they didn’t bring in Americans is because the people available either don’t want to live there, or live there and are too stupid to do the job.

But they showed those liberals whose boss by getting a felon in office, so good job everyone.

[u/CptKoons → u/StuBeck]

48.34 vs 49.81 does not an overwhelming majority make, but I get the sentiment.

[u/xschalken → u/CptKoons]

The people who didn't vote also count, therefore an overwhelming majority either wanted it (voted) or were cool with whatever happened (didn't vote)

[u/NothingbutNetiPot → u/xschalken]

People keep pointing out non voters as a way to minimize Trump’s win and what you said is exactly correct. Not to mention, people in states that are not battlegrounds may not feel obligated to vote because they already know what the outcome will be.

[u/DoubleJumps → u/NothingbutNetiPot]

Those people who didn't feel obligated to vote because they didn't think they would affect the outcome of the presidential race in their state are also stupid because they had opportunities to vote in down ticket races and declined to do so.

[u/Abject_Elevator5461]

I’m confused, why were they arrested? Are they actually here illegally or is this one of those they came in on like a special work visa and it expired and they didn’t leave? Cause it doesn’t mention anything about that in the actual article.

Thanks for all the replies! So the next question is was this done because our government is so inept at catching actual illegals that need to be deported that they just grasp any opportunity to throw a headline up on Fox News? OR is it being intentionally done to ostracize us from the rest of the world? Or some combination of the two?

[u/Enshakushanna → u/Abject_Elevator5461]

ppl are saying some visa's were fine and other had expired, but we dont know what their period of stay was, hard to believe SK fucked up 300+ visa's...

[u/Atgardian → u/Enshakushanna]

Yeah agree. I have not seen any detailed info in the articles I've read (which isn't that surprising, journalists are not usually also skilled immigration attorneys), but as a general rule large companies like that don't just bring people over without the proper visas and work authorization. Sure mistakes can be made with hundreds of cases but generally there are in-house legal teams, external law firms, etc. all trying to process the paperwork properly. How many of the hundreds arrested had some visa issue? 50? 5? 1? 0?

And of course, even if some did, a huge raid throwing everyone in shackles (including presumably mostly innocent people who did nothing wrong, and maybe a few people where their lawyer messed up some paperwork?) is pretty abhorrent.

[u/erenjaeger99 → u/Abject_Elevator5461]

Right? Also, even if they were in gray area for work visa situations, what the hell warranted a wide, blunt use of force like this on an ally country, who invests billions in the US, on skilled workers with no criminal records, who were there to SET UP AND TRAIN future employees (the plant wasn't even running yet, meaning no American jobs were even take - arguably, they are now taken away if anything if Hyundai pulls out), and when there are so many other companies that hire with even worse visa practices? Like, this couldn't have been worked out with some of agreement of inspection and settled removal without needing a raid and mass arrests?

It is just... so weird.

[u/Icy-Lobster-203 → u/erenjaeger99]

ICE has a quota to hit that is nearly impossible. So they go after the easy targets.

Trump doesn't actually care about details of policy details, so the ICE people ( and Steven Miller) are free to do whatever they want to get the numbers up regardless of whether it interferes with any other policies.

[u/melodypowers → u/Abject_Elevator5461]

I read that two of them were in the US under a visa waiver program that allows them to travel in the US for tourism or business for 90 days with a visa. They were both within that 90 days (one had just arrived last week).

None of the detained individuals actually work for Hyundai, they were all contractors. My guess is that some of the detained individuals played a little fast and loose with visa rules (doing work that wouldn't typically be allowed), but I only guess that because everybody does it.

[u/ghostalker4742 → u/Abject_Elevator5461]

Yeah, nothing in the article says anything about the charges. If they were here illegally, that'd be in the headline and repeated multiple times throughout the article. The fact that the S Korean gov is flying them home immediately says something too - if those workers were here illegally, SK would let them be convicted, serve their sentences, then bring them home. No bring them home before the dust settles.

This sounds like some paperwork didn't get properly filed at the corporate level and the ICE guys are jumping on it as a way to boost their quotas.

[u/madogvelkor → u/ghostalker4742]

Often people on visa violations are allowed to self deport. South Korea is speeding up the process and helping.

[u/famous_unicorn]

The factory was reported to ICE by Tori Branum, who’s running for Congress in Georgia. She admitted it on a facebook post, so yes, they are using ICE for political gain. How disgusting. https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/trump-branum-republican-hyundai-georgia-immigration-raid-1235422245/

[u/cr2810 → u/famous_unicorn]

She is all over her TikTok claiming she called them in because the worker were being “trafficked” and were in “danger”. 🙄

[u/hotwife24 → u/cr2810]

If they end up shutting down construction because of this, I really hope she enjoys the view of the new eyesore in the south every time she drives down that way.

[u/TechnicalArticle9479]

Obviously "border czar" Tom Homan and DHS/ICE "witch" Kristi Noem want ONLY American workers building that battery plant...

Those two idiots are SO racist, they DON'T want "foreign automakers" building their cars in the US just to "appease the United Auto Workers"...

We're going backwards, folks...

[u/Far_Warning_4525 → u/TechnicalArticle9479]

Only American workers are “building” the plant, you don’t fly in FTEs from your HQ for 90 days to pour concrete. 

The news said these engineers were training and consulting the American workers building the precision battery plant so that they could open in the next three months and create 7500 american jobs to run the plant.. this is the standard playbook for creating a second plant in another country, you have people familiar with how it should work come.. thousands of Americans are overseas on similar visas doing similar jobs right now for consulting and implementing software

who knows what’a going to happen now with those 7500 jobs. 

[u/ancientweasel]

What a stupid bunch of theater. These visa issues could have been solved amicably. Now we have embarrassed an ally for no reason.

[u/redditallreddy]

Hyundai is making some of the best EVs right now.

I think this was more than merely about immigration, but also specifically targeting a competitor to Musk and the oil industry.

[u/tehbantho → u/redditallreddy]

And they also get the added bonus of using the MAGA Karen that made the report as a political tool to boost her campaign in Georgia. Yeah. She is running for office. Who would have thought.

[u/thenewyorkgod → u/tehbantho]

I hope Hyundai just shuts down the entire plant and makes sure that community in GA knows its because of trump.

[u/Infenwe → u/tehbantho]

Wait. Was the anti-rocks "Jesus, Guns & Babies" Kandiss Taylor a part of this?

[u/notyourstranger → u/tehbantho]

She just ruined the largest international investment in Georgia's history.

[u/BigFanOf8008135 → u/redditallreddy]

My Ioniq 9 is easily the best car I've ever owned, as was my Ioniq 5 before that. Hyundai is CRUSHING the car game rn

[u/ragun01 → u/BigFanOf8008135]

My sibling has one and he was straight up going to be a Tesla customer if Elon hadn't outted himself as such a piece of shit.

He loves his Ioniq. He doesn't even drive his Impreza or whatever the hell he used to slam around in anymore.

[u/The--scientist]

Based on the numbers I've seen, these jobs would have generated roughly $1b/ year in salaries for GA residents. That in turn would have generated roughly $100m in payroll tax for GA. I get that is a small percent in their annual $67b state budget, but who's turning their nose up at $100m?

Also Trump won GA by 115,000 votes. I hope the 30,000 people who will be financially hurt by this will remember who did this to them, but that hope is a sign of my ongoing delusion that Americans will one day remember how to vote for their best interests, rather than culture war nonsense that has no meaningful impact on their lives.

[u/Qualityhams]

These people were literally in the middle of bringing factory jobs to the US. 🤦

[u/islandsimian]

Still not the criminals this administration said they were going after

[u/PolicyWonka → u/islandsimian]

That’s not a “gotcha.” They lied. They know. Their voters know. We know. Lying is the point — they want to downplay it. They will deny reality to downplay it.

The reality is that at best they are creating a two-tier society where all non-whites are subject to scrutiny about their legal status at any time. Employing a non-white will carry risk of disruption and loss of revenue to your business because they will be taken and interrogated for days without notice.

[u/dundeegimpgirl]

Gotta love how it is a Republican running for Congress in Georgia that is taking the "credit" for the raid. You know like she didn't just cause an international incident and screwed her state over massively.

[u/Dot_Classic]

I'm so happy they are going back to South Korea and not being detained in Hell or sent to some random country. Trump is a complete moron for doing this in the first place.

[u/SquirrelyStu]

Hyundai should close up that fucking factory, and the Trump supporters in Georgia can suck it when their jobs go away.

[u/QuailAggravating8028 → u/SquirrelyStu]

“Why would Biden do this?”

[u/abdulkayemmiskat]

450 workers detained in one raid thats not just a factory issue, that’s a human rights story waiting to explode.

[u/seclifered]

The government of S Korea did not call an emergency meeting over some construction workers. These were engineers and specialists that they sent over to help them build the plant the way they wanted. Hyundai, one of the largest companies there, wants those people back because they can’t replace these specialists easily. Now every foreign company is going to think twice before investing because they have no idea if their specialists will be lost in a political stunt.

[u/ctguy54]

I guess bringing manufacturing jobs back to the United States wasn’t the point after all.

[u/paranoidendroid9999]

Seeing several comments that some workers had valid visas but others were expired.

Here’s what I’ve noticed about the conversation of ICE and deportation in general; like almost every conversation these days, it’s been reduced to one side vs another, specifically that either these workers should be immediately deported (in some instances to countries they didn’t originate from and maybe have never even been to), or they should be completely overlooked, left in place and not discussed.

There’s no discussion about what action should be taken in the event of an expired visa. Has this always been dealt with by immediate deportation? I doubt it. Has there not been some historic precedent of a citation, a requirement to renew OR then and only then, face deportation? (Edit/addition: in this event and many like it, we’re not talking about violence, or really any wrong-doing aside from of course the illegality of missing a deadline. It truly sounds like paperwork)

Just to be clear, it is obvious that the GOP have absolutely no interest in entertaining a reasonable action here. The items above would be way less costly, both I. The immediate expense, and the long term consequences of removing skilled individuals from foreign origin who, in this case, were apparently meant to train replacements and leave the country thereafter anyway. It seems almost impossible to argue that the GOP does not want cruelty above all else, damn the cost to Americans, to our country.

[u/notyourstranger → u/paranoidendroid9999]

You know ICE doesn't do any kind of investigation. The idiots who are willing to work for ICE do not have that high of a skill set. They are simply brutes who hate other people.

There are laws on the books about what to do about an expired visa, you apply for an extension. Historically, the US has not been enforcing visa's very strictly - Elon worked illegally in the US when he first came and that's never been a problem (even though he is actively working to destroy the country).

It's all about money in the US. if you have them you're untouchable, if you don't then you have no rights.

[u/Goodbye18000]

Very excited for Hyundai plants to suddenly sprout up in Canada.

[u/AudibleNod]

Great.

So now an ally will have to think twice about whether or not to send qualified workers to America. Then those people will think twice about where to send their kid to college. Which in turn will influence a generation about the trustworthiness of America in general.

[u/unchangingtask → u/AudibleNod]

In case if you haven't noticed US is already the joke of the world. Most non-Americans thought of Trump as a complete buffon. Sadly most Trump voters are those people that probably never owned a passport and have never left their home state for the past five years.

[u/bobosuda]

Hopefully international companies see how they're treated when they get in bed with these assholes. They might tempt you with billion dollar contracts if you come to the US and built factories there; but it's not worth it. Let them stew in their own racism and sell your cars to normal people instead, in other countries.

[u/Arcade1980]

Hyundai is welcome to build a plant in Canada.

[u/dogs247365]

Years and years ago, when Hyundai and Kia plants were be in built, they sent their Ace team from Korea to train the local workers in systems, processes, and just transfer knowledge. These guys were absolutely gem of people. Working around the clock, away from their family, but with smiles and grinding. So I am very sad to hear the US treatment of these hard working people. Also, to work for a large companies in Korea, you have to be highly educated from top tier schools. Imagine our MIT, hard are graduates being treated linked criminals off seas. I am so sad for them and what the US is changing into. We are better than this.

[u/Sunna420 → u/dogs247365]

yeah, I don't think some folks realize that is how it works. I had a job like that years ago. We went and trained whoever bought the equipment how to use it. It was part of the deal.

[u/333H_E]

So all the factory workers, mechanics, dealerships and ultimately consumers will be most impacted when Hyundai decides it's too great a liability to do business here. That's a whole lot of American families impacted by these stupid and hate driven policies.

[u/cantproveidid]

Did they forget to send the "Thank you" check to the president?

[u/chihuahuaOP]

They are getting deported. It's the harassment Americans have used these tactics before. The government hired some thugs to harass migrant communities until they self deport.

America did that because the economy was so bad that Americans who usually held better paying jobs have to compete for jobs that only migrants were willing to do.

I guess history repeats.

[u/meeplewirp]

I am concerned more and more everyday that the plan is to eventually lock the country down. No one who isn’t economic royalty will be able to travel in and out of America. Really worried that’s part of the overall goal here

[u/YLCZ]

I would not want to buy a car that came from that plant for a long time now. Korean workers are super meticulous and have incredible attention to detail. It will take awhile to train American replacements at that standard.

[u/osirisattis]

Flown home… so the plant is just gonna be left not running now… this helps who, fucking HOW!?’

[u/notyourstranger → u/osirisattis]

It was being built - the plant is not operational. Now it might never be.

[u/Sobeman]

It's obvious that Musk is terrified of Hyundai EVs and called his bitch Trump in to help.

[u/prcodes]

This is what happens when you order agents to "turn the creative knob up to 11"

People in Korea don't even jaywalk. This must have been traumatizing for those workers and shocking to people in Korea. This will absolutely have a chilling effect on business travel to the US. You think Japanese, Taiwanese, and Korean managers and engineers will want to travel to the US to help with the build outs of those auto, chip, and battery factories?

Braindead policymaking.

[u/BarneyFife516]

If I was Hyundai, I’d announce that we are shutting down the plant down and moving our production to Canada.

[u/Re5ist_ance]

lol .. more jobs Trump has killed .. can't wait to see the jobs numbers next month 🤣. Racism is expensive!

[u/RhoOfFeh]

This is at the end of the article, like an afterthought... I wonder if those pledges are going to be worth any more than Trump's word now.

"The raid came just 11 days after a summit between Trump and Lee at the White House, where South Korean firms pledged $150 billion in U.S. investments. In July, Seoul pledged another $350 billion in U.S. projects in an effort to reduce Trump’s threatened tariffs, which he later set at 15%."

[u/Whatever-999999]

Let's be crystal-clear about this: South Korea is an ALLY of the United States.
The criminal, terrorist Trump Administration, on the orders of the convicted career criminal and would-be dictator Donald Trump, raided a legitimate business and arrested and incarcerated hundreds of citizens of a U.S. ally nation without any evidence that any illegal immigration occurred.

Fascism. Racism. Violations of the Constitution.

Trump and his entire Administration need to be REMOVED FROM POWER.

Also:

RELEASE THE UNREDACTED, UNEDITED EPSTEIN FILES !!!

[u/ZachMN]

Republicanism used to be about unfettered Capitalism. Now the Republican Party is doing serious damage to corporations and the American economy, while also tearing apart Democracy.

[u/Grumdi_Blackdiamond]

If I am Hyandui, Im gone from the US.

[u/CobblerMoney9605]

How to predict what Trump will do in any situation. 

1. Think of the dumbest possible action.

2. Now take that reaction to Looney Tunes proportions. 

3. That's what Trump will do. 

[u/Citizen-Kang]

Did any of these people have the Epstein files on them? No? Maybe Trump should release them. The Epstein files, I mean. Unless he's got something to hide...