CNN reports on a major immigration raid in Georgia:

“A sprawling Hyundai manufacturing plant in a quiet southeast Georgia community became ground zero on Thursday for one of the most extensive immigration raids in recent US history. The operation, months in the making, ended with 475 arrests, most of them Korean nationals.

As state troopers blocked roads leading to the plant and set up a security perimeter, nearly 500 federal, state and local officers poured into the sprawling battery production facility, still under construction.”

A Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) press release announced that

“ICE special agents, in collaboration with federal, state and local law enforcement partners, executed a federal search warrant at a company on Sept. 4 as part of an active, ongoing criminal investigation. This operation specifically focused on serious allegations of unlawful employment practices and other potential federal crimes. As a result of the initial investigation, 475 individuals were detained. The coordinated action brought together the expertise of Enforcement and Removal Operations, Department of Labor Office of Inspector General, FBI, DEA, U.S. Customs and Border Protection Office of Field Operations, U.S. Border Patrol, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, IRS and the Georgia State Patrol.”

UPDATE (September 8):  NPR reports on the fallout of the raid:

“South Korea plans to send a charter plane to the U.S. to bring home more than 300 workers who were detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents at a Georgia Hyundai plant. In an emergency meeting in Seoul, South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Hyun said he was `deeply concerned’ over the arrests. ICE officials say the raid at the Hyundai electric vehicle battery plant was the largest single-site enforcement operation in the history of Homeland Security investigations. “

ICE released video of what officials say is the largest single-site enforcement operation in the history of the Homeland Security Investigations. It shows officers shackling workers and loading them onto Georgia prison buses.

Politico reports that President Trump wrote late Sunday on Truth Social he was “calling on all Foreign Companies investing in the United States to please respect our Nation’s Immigration Laws.”

 

KJ