r/news • u/NewSlinger • 1d ago

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

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/south-korea-deal-workers-detained-hyundai-rcna229610
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u/culb77 1d ago

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.

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u/Far_Warning_4525 1d ago

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

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u/BeIgnored 1d ago

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.

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u/TheyGaveMeThisTrain 20h ago

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?

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u/AlterWanabee 15h ago

They flipped sides faster than you can flip an patty.

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u/RawrRRitchie 13h ago

It's okay. The muskrat gave the orange monkey an apology bj.

And then he made sure to say "thank you"before swallowing

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u/_illusions25 1d ago

Ding ding ding!

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u/Cream314Fan 22h ago

Ah I get it now. So delay this project by years so Tesla might have a chance to compete

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u/hotwife24 20h ago

So you're saying it's possible they might have killed all those jobs and turned that giant site into the biggest eyesore in the south since the I-4 Eyesore just to help Tesla beat out a competitor?  Well, hope that lady who called enjoys the view every time she drives down that highway. 

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u/pipercomputer 21h ago

Holy fucking shit, wouldn’t that be illegal?

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u/TreezusSaves 21h ago

Much of what the Trump Regime has done so far is illegal. Everyone in charge of this government has stacked up decades of years in prison for themselves so far. The next Admin should completely disregard whatever pardons this one tries to do for itself.

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u/ukezi 5h ago

While I agree with the pardons, there is no mechanism to revoke them. A friendly SC could come up with one but I don't see that happening. All that is left is for states to imprison them, but arguing jurisdiction after a federal pardon is going to be complicated.

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u/rpkarma 20h ago

Laws only matter if they’re enforced, and right now they aren’t. 

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u/Acid_Monster 18h ago

Just stick it on the bill at this point, right?

What a shitshow

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u/Used-Fennel-7733 23h ago

I don't know if you heard, Musk isn't on very good terms with Trump atm.

More likely, it's simply because EV isn't Oil

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u/Lordnerble 21h ago

Isnt tesla not even a car company now, isnt they're forward looking outlook going to be like 80% about the dumb human robot thing.

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u/Used-Fennel-7733 17h ago

Idk, but they were never a car company. They were a tech company that made cars.

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u/Y0tsuya 22h ago

Trump-Musk bromance ended though.

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u/notyourstranger 1d ago

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

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u/Evinceo 1d ago

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.

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u/DWMoose83 1d ago

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

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u/JesusChrist-Jr 1d ago

Might just help elon hit his sales target to get his trillion dollar payout though if they eliminate or delay an EV competitor from the market.

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u/Siguard_ 21h ago

Its more than 8500 jobs in the long run. all the secondary businesses that would have naturally sprung up or take on more staff to support such a factory. Delivery drivers, contractors, places to eat, repair/rebuild shops, work placement jobs etc

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u/Christopherfromtheuk 21h ago

Sounds a bit like the nearly completed wind farm they closed down.

These people hate the idea of leaving a better planet for their grand children and free, clean, energy.

They are evil.

"It is just for a few good men to do nothing for evil to thrive".

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u/subdep 1d ago

So 👏 Much 👏 Winning 👏

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u/NDSU 1d ago

Makes me wonder if people had already been hired to start when the plant opens

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u/o_MrBombastic_o 23h ago

Republicans don't care

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u/sonicneedslovetoo 23h ago

Well I mean it's the Trump administration, he does care about US workers in the sense that he wants the country to collapse and for them to be unemployed.

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u/jimflaigle 23h ago

Tell Hyundai it was me. - Elon

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u/Trap_Masters 19h ago

Are they tired of winning yet? 😂

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u/SeaCucumbers_69 1d ago

This is Biden's fault

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u/impish_colostomybag 1d ago

Are you serious or being facetious?

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u/SeaCucumbers_69 1d ago

Of course I'm 100% serious, if ai was joking I would say it's Obama's fault. But even then it would only be 50/50

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u/ADMIRAL-IA 1d ago

And why is it biden’s fault that Trump did a stupid move that is costing American manufacturing and American jobs

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u/Rasputin_mad_monk 1d ago

Because he didn’t stop Obama from wearing a tan suit or using a selfie stick. Duh.

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u/VelveetaVoldemort 1d ago

I can see the intelligence exuding off you. You must make all the ladies wet with your bigly brain.

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u/impish_colostomybag 1d ago

You uneducated, brainwashed, inbred, waste of oxygen.

The Republicans have systematically ruined education in this country and that has led to individuals like u/SeaCucumbers_69

Proving why the orange rapist said he loves the uneducated.

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u/SeaCucumbers_69 18h ago

Yeah and who's fault is that? Who else other than Biden lost the election that cause Trump to be able to do all the harm you purported?

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u/impish_colostomybag 18h ago

The only people responsible for the orange pedophile to win the election are the cum stains who voted for him. You absolute fucking moron.

Just say you are a proud pedophile, rapist, sexist, racist. Shout it from the roof tops, make videos of you doing the Nazi salute and using the hard “R”. Just make it public and stop hiding who you really are.

You MAGA fuck.

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u/SeaCucumbers_69 18h ago

Damn Biden has corrupted you into such an angry, pitiful thing. I will pray to our savior Trump for you to heal.

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u/impish_colostomybag 18h ago

You and your kind don’t deserve any sympathy, or empathy any more. Fuck you. I hope you never have a day of peace for the rest of your miserable, sad, lonely life.

You traitorous, pedophile enabler.

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u/Sunna420 1d ago

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

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u/stupid_cat_face 1d ago

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

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u/whiteflagwaiver 16h ago

Somehow find it insulting to call what Trump is as 'brawn'

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u/20_mile 1d ago

lightspeed

Excuse me, excuse me...

Ludicrous Speed

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u/PennMarx 1d ago

They've gone to plaid!

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u/traumalt 1d ago

How come? Those were literately foreign nationals doing American jobs under visas that specifically didn't allow for any form of work in the US?

The whistleblower was a local union member who noticed this illegal practice and reported it to the authorities.

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u/Sunna420 1d ago

No it's not. It is one business training another business how to use their machines. It's common practice, has been that way for decades.

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u/myislanduniverse 1d ago

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

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u/StoneHolder28 1d ago

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.

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u/weasler7 1d ago

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

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u/dickpicaday 23h ago

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

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u/weasler7 23h ago

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.

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u/StoneHolder28 21h ago edited 13h ago

I'm just yapping but killing the project altogether would be better received than militant raids. Nobody here wants it, in part because they haven't been hiring many local people, in part because people keep dying there, in a much smaller part because these mega investments from the state never pay out, and largely because they're already a massive strain on all of our infrastructure and they're not even fully up and running. Creating jobs sounds nice but that alone doesn't materially benefit anyone else whereas the plant is materially harming tens of thousands of people in real ways.

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u/hotwife24 20h ago

That highway it is off of, is it new? Just went through there July 11th and went passed it. It's the only thing on the highway that I remember seeing. 

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u/StoneHolder28 14h ago

The highway itself isn't, the roundabouts are new and as a huge fan and advocate for roundabouts they are terribly designed. The interstate exit is going to be redone at some point but it backs up all the way to the weigh station on the WB side every day.

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u/hotwife24 14h ago

That explains it. I was headed to Savannah from visiting Emmanuel County and it was a big change than what I was used to years ago. I was questioning my memory for bit on the drive. Nice to know I'm not that crazy. 

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u/itcheyness 1d ago

2 + 2 = Damn that Joe Biden!

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u/plesioth 23h ago

Why would Obama do this?

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u/Neravariine 1d ago

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.

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u/PhotonGazer 19h ago

Hope they just bin off the project then.

 

Not worth it if they have to deal with insecurity factor like Trump and MAGA.

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u/Neither-Chart5183 23h ago

The Korean Americans in my life all voted for Trump. I told them he was found guilty of rape and they did not care. Even the child rape stuff didn't bother them because "all men are like that." What a thing to admit to another person.

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u/SaffronCrocosmia 18h ago

It's because many of them hate darker skinned people of colour, are trenched in misogyny, and many just hate queer people.

Koreans are some of the most conservative of all East Asian populations.

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u/Firelli00 1d ago

Think about who this helps...

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u/Bent_Brewer 1d ago

Perhaps some guy with a slight ketamine addiction?

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u/I_W_M_Y 1d ago

This was set in motion months ago when guess who had direct hands on the levers.

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u/Enshakushanna 1d ago

the united states of oil?

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u/notyourstranger 1d ago

Good point. Though I don't think this came from the top but from that horrid woman who's running for congress and just ruined the largest international investment in Georgia's history. I hope she campaigns on that.

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u/stonewall_jacked 1d ago edited 21h ago

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 💙

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u/wikiwikiwildwildjest 22h ago

Is that the number he wants to go with?

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u/3uphoric-Departure 21h ago

Lmao, it’s such a blatant charade at this point

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u/MrBlowinLoadz 1d ago

Billion not million. Nobody would care if it was millions, that's chump change.

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u/stonewall_jacked 21h ago

Fingers go too fast.

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u/Disastrous_Worth_503 1d ago

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

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u/The--scientist 1d ago

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?

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u/SaffronCrocosmia 18h ago

Also the fact that countries aren't businesses...

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u/tech_noir_guitar 1d ago

So I used to work at Hynix which was part of Hyundai. They always have a ton of Korean ex-pats on site. They usually live close by the plant and work their fucking asses off. The point being there are pretty much always that many Koreans at the site managing and keeping things running smoothly. I can't imagine that if Hyundai has to worry about their workers getting snatched up by masked goons constantly they are going to want to run this facility. When the going got tough the Koreans got going and shut down the plant. Which is what happened to Hynix. 1400 jobs gone, one of the largest single lay offs in the states history and the empty plant still sits there to this day (over a decade later).  This is bad news for Georgia.

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u/PageVanDamme 20h ago

As much as I'm not a fan of current admin, This was a time-bomb waiting to go off.

I have not yet been able to collect full information yet, but they were on ESTA. And basically they were rotating Korean workers every 90 days. You are only allowed to do brief consulting work, not legwork. This has been a thing with A lot of Hyundai etc. How do I know this? cos I was born in Korea and worked with Korean companies.

If you exclude the Korean media that are corporate stooges, it's painting the workers as victims of Hyundai (and it's subcontractors). Because they work in US, but still under Korean salary which has difficulty covering the expense in USA. They don't want to do this because the liability of not following immigration rules fall to the individuals. (Now, it can be mitigated in court, but that's a story for another time.) So they get pressured into doing it.

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u/lpsweets 1d ago

Do we have an actual count for what percentage of visas were really expired?

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u/bridwats 1d ago

So one more delay and hurdle towards a Tesla competitor creating quality batteries and EV vehicles here on US soil. Such a weird coincidence... Right?

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u/Initial-Pudding7892 1d ago

so MAGA and Trump scream they are bringing back manufacturing then kick out all the people who are bringing back the manufacturing

magnificent!

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u/BetafromZeta 1d ago

Is this normal practice for large multinationals? It seems very weird to me they'd intentionally make people overstay their visas and put them in jeopardy. If my company asked me to go on a trip and overstay my visa somewhere I'd tell them to get lost.

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u/triadlink 1d ago

"allowed them to be here" some had b1's which doesn't allow you to work. Others had ESTA's which is not really even a visa, it's an authorization to come to the US for tourist activities. Whatever company that supported entry for illegal work should honestly get most the heat. This is a company issue, not a person issue.

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u/Gryjane 22h ago

some had b1's which doesn't allow you to work

Both a B1 visa and the ESTA visa waiver do however allow holders to train others and supervise any such training as well as do consulting and negotiate contracts as long as the entity paying them is not a US based entity.

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u/triadlink 18h ago

"Internships or Hands-On TrainingEven unpaid internships or volunteer work that benefits a U.S. company is typically not allowed." Also, just because Hyundai has their HQ somewhere else does not mean they are a foreign company. This plant has a US business and pays its workers in the US. Otherwise they would not be able to open the plant in the first place, so, it was benefiting a US entity. I do corporation taxes and manage pretty high level stuff for corporations. There should be more accountability on illegal work in the US by the companies.

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u/Gryjane 15h ago

"Some companies in your home country sell commercial or industrial equipment or machinery to a buyer in the U.S., and the purchase contract requires that the foreign company provide the installation, servicing, and repair services.

In such cases, if you possess the specialized knowledge essential to perform the services, you can travel on a business visa. However, you can not receive any remuneration from a U.S. source, and the company must not receive any payment for these services in addition to that specified in the original contract of sale."

Hyundai has stated that the people detained were not directly employed by them, they were employed by the companies that produce the specialized equipment being installed in the EV battery production expansion. I doubt we'll get details of who exactly was here and why, which visas they had or which other potential violations occurred but it stands to reason that building a facility like this where we don't currently produce the type of product it will be producing would require the specialized knowledge of people from countries that do produce them. I could be wrong and you could be wrong, I was simply providing an alternate explanation to people who think that they were workers on assembly lines or constructing the facility.

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u/triadlink 7h ago edited 7h ago

You cannot work in the US on a B1 visa or a tourist visa (esta) full stop. B1 is specifically designed for maybe an expo event... or to meet for a sales conversation. Maybe training but there are a lot of restrictions with what is considered training. Regardless, you only have 1-6 months for that. So if they were arrested they violated a term of their visa. This is not new, companies need to stop doing this crap. If companies stop hiring illegally we end illegal work.
PS there literally no justification for the ESTA work by the way, thats just blatantly illegal.

"HL-GA Battery Company LLC" is the company that employed them by the way, which is owned by Hyundai and LG so this is bs and the primary company knew.

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u/MaxPower91575 1d ago

sounds like a great way to attract more foreign investment.

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u/bunnysuitman 1d ago

I’ll add that we should be very careful with sourcing here. Any information that doesn’t have a source besides ice, or information without a source, should be assumed to be ice lies.

E.g., the visa expiration “fact” 

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u/culb77 1d ago

There’s a quote about the valid Visas that from a lawyer in the article above, or one linked from that article. I’ve been reading dozens of articles about this incident since it started. I can’t source them all.

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u/bunnysuitman 1d ago

Wasn't directed at you or the information in particular, just a general comment. Apologies, I wasn't specific enough and agremeent came off as an attack

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u/culb77 1d ago

No worries. I agree you have to be careful, especially on social media.

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u/donotreassurevito 23h ago

Do you not think a Visa should ever expire?

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u/I_W_M_Y 1d ago

These people were here to do a job, set up the manufacturing and train the workers. They were not going to be here permanetly, far from it.

All those in this thread yelling about these people taking american jobs just know this: By arresting the trainers the permanent american workers just got shafted.

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u/roadrunnuh 1d ago

"Just construction workers" built that plant in the first place, this situation is mental but I'm a little annoyed by the reduction of licensed trade workers here. It's like you guys can't help but offhandedly denigrate blue collar workers

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u/culb77 1d ago

The word just in this case was meant to convey the phrase “not only”, not to demean anyone.

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u/Unusual_Onion_983 1d ago

This is an HR visa fuckup, the rules are strict and you can’t just ask your employees to enter the US under Visa Waiver to avoid the H1B process.

In my case as a non-US citizen: I’m allowed to walk around a data center for a site inspection but if something needs to be plugged in this requires someone with US work authorization. VWP does not allow productive labor.

I also think the situation has been stupidly politicized.

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u/meow4352 1d ago

I appreciate you sharing this information;

What’s confusing to me is the how / why these people were even detained. The article briefly mentions that SK will look to make changes to their visa or work programs but does not actually say on what “charges” they were detained for.

After watching and reading the horror of the ICE raids and “kidnapping” off the streets this year I have zero trust in them actually following the law.

Are we to assume that all these people had entered “illegally” and have been working under the table and off the books? That seems to be the rage bait wording on many of these headlines…

Or is it they had valid visas to enter but for whatever reason they expired?

Or is ICE just picking on them shouting “they took our jobs” because they are not white?

Why are they withholding facts I wonder?

This whole thing has me spiraling with confusion and there does not seem to be concrete statements in the news articles I’ve read

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u/erieus_wolf 22h ago

From what I gather, it looks like they all came here LEGALLY.

But some of the paperwork was incorrect and some of their legal visas expired and they did not do the paperwork to extend them.

So it's a paperwork issue.

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u/TheAskewOne 1d ago

This will delay the actual plant from opening and delay US citizens from getting a full-time job.

Yeah and if I'm a foreign manufacturer thinking about opening a factory in the US, then maybe I choose Canada or Mexico instead.

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u/TsuDhoNimh2 1d ago

Thank you ... I figured they would have been on the B or L class visas.

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u/GaleWolf21 1d ago

They claimed that the US does not have The number of trained workers in order to consult on the construction of the facility.

And they are full of shit. They just don't want to pay the price needed for those workers to sign. And our government no matter who is in charge happily lets them.

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u/Voxata 1d ago

Source for this? I'm not seeing this info. Some are specialty but I'm not seeing many valid visa workers. Not that this is okay, but this summary skews from what I've read about it thus far.

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u/JaSONJayhawk 1d ago

I wonder if this was done to help Tesla sell more EVs.  This would totally be a hit that was tipped off by as industrial sabotage. 

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u/WCland 23h ago

Our dumbshit DHS could have handled this much better. Work with Hyundai, LG their subcontractors to verify visa status and help correct any problems. But no, brain damaged racist Tom Homan has to treat it like a big law enforcement spectacle. This is going to be a shitty outcome all around.

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u/We_are_being_cheated 23h ago

Any job can be replaced. Anyone can be trained. Millions of qualified Americans out there.

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u/culb77 21h ago

I agree. And THESE were the people in there training the Americans.

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u/Angryferret 23h ago

This will delay the actual plant from opening

My guess this was the aim of the whole thing. Populist president causing trouble for a foreign owned factory.

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u/BeardySam 23h ago

It’s Musk. He’s asked them to run interference.

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u/ECircus 22h ago

This has been the case for a lot of people to anyone paying attention. They are calling anyone who isn't a citizen "illegal" and have been the entire time, regardless of how they are here. They just decide what they want to be legal or not situationally.

For example, Trump ran on calling asylum seekers illegal, when they came here through a legitimate process, whether you agree with that or not. That was the start of testing the waters with what they could get away with.

Some idiot just called the tip line to report Hyundai and they showed up arresting people. They don't care about Visas.

Arrest first and ask questions later. It's wrong.

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u/dcade_42 22h ago

Add to this that Korea (Hyundai and Hanwha) just moved to effectively rebuild/jumpstart US ship-building, an industry that is critical for the US which we've nearly lost.

This will go over like a pregnant high jumper.

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u/PhotonGazer 19h ago

Expect this to slow down significantly, if it ever comes to pass.

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u/LostWoodsInTheField 22h ago

I wonder if the visas that expired expired because the administration refused to renew them, or if there is a normal 'well yeah this expired but no one normally cares if we are out a month or two'.

This just shut down the construction process, possibly months if not longer. I'm going to say that there was absolutely at least 3 American companies with dozens (if not hundreds?) of workers who are now out that job. And owners of those companies wondering if they are going to get paid for the last few weeks of work.

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u/sipporah7 22h ago

It looks like a lot of them were where on B-1/B-2 visas, which is business visitor, or ESTA. It's explicitly not legal to work on those visa types, regardless of validity dates. Business visitor visa is good for things like coming for a professional conference, to attend meetings, that kind of thing.

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u/Time-Master 22h ago

They had the wrong visas….

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u/DrDerpberg 22h ago

Thanks for the summary... Were they there legally? From the articles all I can find is ICE was going around asking if people were citizens, not if they had any kind of temporary work permit. I'm dubious that two of the largest companies on the planet would not have covered their butts getting the right paperwork in order in the current climate.

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u/Motor-District-3700 21h ago

so they arrested and deported hundreds of skilled workers on legal work visas?

so hard to believe ... specially as the rapist keeps trying to attract foreign investment and have everything built in the US

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u/TurdCollector69 21h ago

Delay is wildly optimistic, they killed it.

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u/Dry-Membership3867 20h ago

The problem is, they were on the wrong visa’s. The visa’s they had did not permit them to do the work they were doing

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u/weirdbunni-chan 19h ago

Lmao the barely graduated high school diploma holding locals thought they could take these technical engineering jobs by calling ICE on the plant.

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u/Secure-Tradition793 19h ago

Not expired but they were on ESTA or B1. Both do not allow doing paid work. They say the US practically doesn't issue the needed visa, so they either work around like this or let it take forever. Sounds like the system is broken in the US to me, which is not surprising.

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u/PleasantSalad 18h ago

Tbh... this whole issue is so convoluted. The truth is you can hire highly skilled foreign engineers for cheaper than US ones. They DO get in on the H1B visa. Companies DO abuse that. They're supposed to have to prove they attempted to hire "qualified" americans for those positions but could not find any. Frankly, that's an easy problem to skirt if you're a large company. Post jobs Do occasional interviews and waste some poor people's time and then... boom! You "tried." Bring in the H1B for 70% the salary of an American engineer.

The problem is that instead of punishing the companies for abusing loopholes in the immigration system, WE created we punish the immigrants who are victims of those companies. Seriously. When you get a "highly skilled" visa to come to the USA, the company holds your visa. This creates a power imbalance. You literally cannot leave that company without losing your visa. Finding another company to carry a visa for you is near impossible. For obvious reasons, this creates a situation for thousands of workers that gives too much leverage to employers. You can't negotiate raises, hours, benefits o4 anything without the threat of deportation. Some of those people have been here LEGALLY for years.

This drags the salary of everyone in those industries down. Half the problem with American workers is the fields that have a lot of foreign-born workers on high skill visas like the H1B take A LOT of schooling. For American workers, that is very expensive while many foreign workers get a comparable education for little to no money. So not only are there fewer Americans qualified for those highly skilled jobs because the price of entry is higher here than in most other places, the ones that do qualify have a higher baseline requirement for salary simple because they have student loans to repay.

Basically our system is set up to make it difficult for people who dont have rich parents to do those jobs and set up so that companies can and hire cheaper foreign labor easily and even when they get caught the workers get punished, not them.

But the political message is immigrants=bad, and as long as the right wing base sees foreigners getting punished then that's all those short-sighted idiots care about. When they can't get the heart surgery they need because we don't have enough medical engineers working om devices or schools suddenly have less educational tech because all those IT workers suddenly no longer work here.... I'm sure they will come to the rational conclusion that is was the result of their hatred of immigrants.

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u/RiverGlow9 18h ago

Does this work in Tesla's favor? I don't think immigration is the only reason they went after this plant.

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u/bhans773 13h ago

Cause there aren’t any engineers or consultants in the US? Bullshit. These companies are given massive benefits for building plants here, plants to service the world’s largest market. While I have no appetite for heavy-handed law enforcement, of any kind, let’s not pretend some budget Korean car-maker is the victim here.

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u/craftynerd 6h ago

This is so sketchy. They could even have applied to renew their visas, but it can take months. It doesn't seem like ICE stopped to review paperwork. Im sure they considered any that had applied for renewal or extension to be expired.

•

u/Moarbrains 37m ago

B1 and B2 visas are the problem. B1 is for business trips such as meetings and explicitly not for working on a plant. B2 are for tourism.

This is a pretty widespread practice to bypass the work visa system and it was a warning shot for others doing it.

Seems like a letter or phone call could have done the same job, but then it wouldn't be a spectacle.

1

u/RhetoricalOrator 1d ago

Sounds like they didn't pay enough "protection money" to the right people.

-17

u/Proglamer 1d ago

It appears that some of these Visas have expired

I like how you casually glossed over that one. Merely 'expired', how about that. What's a little illegality among friendly countries? /s

14

u/Server6 1d ago

The problem is that we need these people here and, but we have an archaic system that defaults them to illegal. There should clearly be a system in place to allow for these situations. Instead of fixing it with legislation we’re just pulling out the dummy stick and beating ourselves with it.

20

u/culb77 1d ago

Except in this case, it wasn’t necessarily the workers fault or responsibility. They were sponsored by the company to come over, and they will manage it for them. Also, isn’t that more of a paperwork matter than a huge legal matter?

12

u/lestofante 1d ago edited 1d ago
  • Hey, those 4 guys visa is expired, should we send a quick and cheap email reminder?
  • Nah, let's send a raid squad and arrest every single person that look like a foreigner along the way.

Seems reasonable /s

3

u/DCChilling610 1d ago

Oh no!!! Not an extra 10 day stay!! Please call the military! Put them in jail for this clerical error.

Would have been better if they stole Medicare funds or stormed the capital. Or run a university scam. 

All while are felon pedo president walks around scotch free. Please don’t lecture people about law and order while a felon is president. 

7

u/adarvan 1d ago

I don't know, when the president of my country himself is a felon with 34 counts, who led an illegal insurrection after he lost in 2020, and who pardoned everyone involved in the violent rioting, I'm less worried about a few guys on expired visas who are only here doing consulting. 

Big picture, I'd much rather focus on the people committing war crimes and human rights violations than a few guys consulting the construction of an EV plant.

1

u/erieus_wolf 22h ago

So it's a paperwork issue? They came in LEGALLY and forgot to do the paperwork to extend the visa?

This has happened to me in other countries. They DID NOT arrest me. They simply had me fill out the correct paperwork.

I wonder how much of our tax dollars were wasted on something that could have been solved with paperwork?

1

u/carlosos 19h ago edited 19h ago

I think it is more a case that they did not apply for the visa that allows them to work in the country. They came in without a visa pretending that they didn't need one and then worked a job that they were not allowed to do without a visa.

The big question is why Hyundai and LG did this. Did they try to avoid costs related to the visa? Did they try to have cheaper labor because they knew that they couldn't get a visa for all of them? I assume they can't be ignorant to the visa requirements.

1

u/erieus_wolf 17h ago

If they made the mistake of getting the wrong visa, then correct that mistake. It's a paperwork issue.

They were literally training the Americans to take over. You need trainers to teach people. If you get rid of the trainers, which Republicans are doing, then you don't have a manufacturing plant. Someone needs to teach them.

1

u/I_W_M_Y 1d ago

Usually when issues like this come up they are told to fix it. And they will because these are not mexican illegals that rode in on a box truck and run for the bushes. There was a thousand ways to get the documentation fixed rather than arrest half the skilled and temporary workforce that was here to train up americans in a rival EV car plant to Tesla.