NEW YORK – A surprise raid by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on a Hyundai-LG battery plant project in Georgia may be part of the Donald Trump administration’s effort to tip the scales of the 2026 elections, said the head of the largest Korean American voter network in the country.
“The Donald Trump administration’s immigration crackdown is the most critical campaign to secure victory in next year’s midterm elections,” Kim Dong-suk, president of the Korean American Grassroots Conference (KAGC), said in a telephone interview with The Korea Economic Daily on Saturday.
“Korean companies investing in the US should take note and maintain composure until the elections are over.”
On Friday, ICE announced that it carried out a special investigation into “unlawful employment practices” at a battery joint venture plant between Hyundai Motor Co. and LG Energy Solution Ltd. under construction in Ellabell, Georgia, near Savannah. Nearly 500 workers, most of them South Korean nationals, were detained.
ICE said many of those arrested were “fraudulently using visitor visas” to work at the site, in violation of their visa terms.
“People on short-term or recreational visas are not authorized to work in the US,” the agency said on its website.
Kim warned that similar raids could hit other US operations of Korean companies as the administration uses immigration enforcement to mobilize voters.
“Congress has already kicked off its campaign for next year’s midterms,” said Kim. “For the Trump administration and Republicans, a crackdown on undocumented immigrants is the surest way to fire up their base, so they can’t help but focus on it.”
MORE FOCUS ON THE 2026 MIDTERM ELECTIONS
US midterm elections are held halfway through the president’s four-year term and decide all 435 House seats, one-third of the 100 Senate seats, as well as a range of gubernatorial, state legislature and local races.
The 2026 elections, set for Nov. 3, will be the second midterms under President Trump, who began his second term earlier this year.
Since returning to office, the Trump administration has escalated its hardline immigration stance, deploying National Guard troops to sanctuary cities, like New York and Los Angeles, and sending warning letters to 32 cities that refuse to cooperate with federal enforcement to sweep illegal immigrants.
Officials are also planning a large-scale immigration sweep in Boston, extending operations already carried out in Democratic strongholds, such as Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. – a move seen as an effort to rally Trump supporters ahead of the election.
Kim said the Hyundai raid could be viewed as a political strike against Georgia, a key battleground in next year’s midterms.
Once a Republican stronghold, the state has shifted into a swing state as growing African American, Hispanic and Asian populations have expanded the Democratic base around major cities like Atlanta, Savannah and Augusta, while rural areas remain solidly Republican.
In the 2020 presidential election, Joe Biden carried Georgia by just 0.23 percentage point, and Democrats Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff both won Senate runoffs the following year, securing their party a Senate majority in the state.
Those victories elevated Georgia as the “new battleground of the Deep South,” a term used to describe the most traditionally conservative US states in the South, including Georgia, Alabama, South Carolina and Mississippi.
Despite those wins, Democrats’ hold on the state remains tenuous, setting up another tight race next year.
BIGGEST INVESTMENT HITS A SNAG
Ironically, the plant targeted by ICE was once touted by former President Biden as a signature achievement of his administration.
In 2023, Hyundai Motor and LG Energy announced the $4.3 billion venture to produce EV battery cells, with each company holding a 50% stake. The plant is expected to supply batteries for Hyundai, Kia and Genesis EV models.
The factory is part of Hyundai’s $12.6 billion investment in Georgia, which also houses the automaker’s newly opened EV car plant, hailed as the largest economic development project in the state’s history.
The arrests risk inflaming tensions between Washington and Seoul, a key ally and major investor in the US.
The two countries have been at odds over the details of a trade deal that includes $350 billion of investments. At a summit last month, South Korea committed $150 billion in US investments, including $26 billion from Hyundai Motor.
The Trump administration’s immigration crackdown has drawn criticism for disrupting businesses even as the White House has pressed foreign companies to invest more in the US.
Kim attributed the policy mismatch to poor coordination within the administration.
“Cabinet secretaries are more concerned with competing to prove their loyalty to President Trump than with communicating with one another,” he said, noting that ICE is no exception.
In such an environment, even as the Commerce Department pushes to revive US manufacturing, ICE remains focused on boosting its immigration enforcement record.
“The Trump administration is currently more focused on winning elections than on diplomacy, so the South Korean government and companies should keep that in mind in handling these issues,” added Kim.
SOUTH KOREA RAISES CONCERNS
On Friday, ICE released video of what it called the largest single-site enforcement operation in the history of Homeland Security Investigations, showing officers shackling workers and loading them onto Georgia prison buses.
“This operation underscores our commitment to protecting jobs for Georgians and Americans,” said Steven Schrank, special agent in charge of homeland security investigations for Georgia and Alabama, at a press conference.
“We are sending a clear and unequivocal message that those who exploit our workforce, undermine our economy and violate federal laws will be held accountable.”
He added that the raids were the result of a months-long investigation, not an indiscriminate roundup.
Trump backed the raids, saying only “I would say that they were illegal aliens, and ICE was just doing its job.”
South Korean President Lee Jae Myung called for urgent efforts to resolve the matter, Foreign Minister Cho Hyun said at an emergency meeting in Seoul on Saturday.
Lee stressed that “the rights and interests of South Korean nationals and the business operations of South Korean companies investing in the United States must not be infringed upon.”
Cho is considering traveling to the US this week to discuss the issue.
“We are deeply concerned and feel a heavy sense of responsibility over the arrests of our nationals,” he said at the meeting.
LG Energy confirmed that about 300 Korean employees from the company and its subcontractors were detained, while Hyundai Motor said none of its direct employees were arrested.
LG said it has suspended all business trips to the US and instructed visiting employees to remain in their accommodations or return home immediately.
Its chief human resources officer flew to the US on Sunday to address the situation on site.
By Sin-Young Park and Sookyung Seo
nyusos@hankyung.com
Jennifer Nicholson-Breen edited this article.
