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South Korea Negotiates Release of Its Citizens Detained in ICE Raid at Hyundai Plant

HeadlineSep 08, 2025

South Korea announced that it is sending a charter plane to the U.S. to bring back more than 300 of its citizens who were rounded up and detained by ICE at a Hyundai plant in Georgia. ICE officials arrested nearly 500 people, most of them South Korean nationals, on Thursday at the Hyundai-LG battery plant. Footage of the raid showed workers shackled in handcuffs and ankle chains and loaded onto buses. ICE officials have called it the largest enforcement operation in the agency’s history. South Korea’s foreign minister is expected to arrive in Washington today to discuss the release of the workers. The ICE raid comes as South Korea recently agreed to invest $350 billion in the U.S. in exchange for lower tariffs.

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