The US homeland security secretary has said foreign workers detained in last week’s immigration raid in Georgia will be “deported,” even as Seoul is negotiating with Washington to allow hundreds of South Korean nationals to return home under “voluntary departure.”
Kristi Noem made the remarks while attending the Five Eyes intelligence-sharing partnership meeting on Monday in London.
“Many of those individuals that were detained through that operation in Georgia … we are following the law, they are going to be deported,” she said, according to video footage released by the Associated Press.
“A few of those had criminal activity beyond just being here past final removal orders, and they will face the consequences for that,” the secretary said.
Her use of the term “deported” drew attention in Seoul because deportation carries a formal ban on re-entering the US, whereas voluntary departure – the path the Korean government has been negotiating – typically avoids such penalties.
It was unclear whether Noem was using the word in a technical sense or as a shorthand for removal.
Officials in Seoul stated that her comments may not have specifically referred to Koreans, given the presence of other nationalities among those detained.
Last Thursday, US immigration agents raided the construction site of an electric vehicle battery joint venture between Hyundai Motor Co. and LG Energy Solution Ltd. in Georgia and detained 475 employees, including 300 Koreans, mostly LG Energy staff, at a detention center in Folkston.
The detained employees are alleged to have worked on the site without proper work permits, having entered the US under the Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA) or short-term B1 business visas.
The raid on the HL-GA Battery Co. plant was the largest single-site workplace enforcement operation in Department of Homeland Security history, industry officials said.
SENIOR KOREAN OFFICIALS IN WASHINGTON FOR NEGOTIATIONS
On Monday, senior Korean presidential officials in Seoul said Seoul and Washington had reached a broad understanding that detained workers would be allowed to leave the US under voluntary departure.
Korea’s Foreign Minister Cho Hyun flew to Washington, D.C., later on Monday to finalize administrative procedures with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, clearing the way for repatriation and discussing ways to improve the visa system and prevent the recurrence of such incidents.
Seoul has expressed its unhappiness about the US raid and the public release of footage showing the operation, which involved armored vehicles and the shackling of workers.
Kim Yong-beom, presidential policy chief, said on Monday that the Korean government conveyed its protest over the incident in “the strongest possible tone” to Washington.
“We are doing everything to ensure that not a single Korean is deported, but that all return home under voluntary departure,” he said.
KAL TO FLY CHARTER PLANE TO BRING KOREANS BACK HOME
A chartered Korean Air Lines Co. plane will depart for Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport in Georgia on Wednesday to bring home Korean employees held in the detention center.
Sources said Korean Air plans to send a Boeing 747-8i aircraft with 368 seats and is expected to return to the Incheon International Airport by late Thursday.
The round trip is expected to cost about 1 billion won ($720,773), with LG Energy Solution planning to cover the fares.
The incident has thrown Korea’s flagship investment projects in the US into disarray.
At least 22 other factory sites involving Korean business groups, in autos, shipbuilding, steel and electrical equipment, have been nearly halted, according to people familiar with the matter.
Hyundai Motor is one of the biggest foreign investors in the US and is among Korean companies participating in a pledge of $150 billion in foreign direct investment in the US, which comes on top of a $350 billion fund that Seoul has separately pledged.
By In-Soo Nam
isnam@hankyung.com
Jennifer Nicholson-Breen edited this article.
