S. Koreans detained at GA plant leave U.S.

Eduardo Cuevas

USA TODAY

South Korean workers detained during an immigration raid at a Hyundai battery plant construction site in Georgia have left the United States on a charter plane.

Just before noon local time on Sept.11, more than 300 South Korean nationals took off on a Korean Air flight from Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport. Korean Air confirmed in an email to USA TODAY that the flight was headed to Incheon International Airport, which serves Seoul, the nation’s capital.

The workers had been detained for nearly a week following a sweeping Sept.4 immigration raid at the HL-GA battery plant currently under construction near Savannah.

About 475 people were arrested in one of the largest immigration raids during Donald Trump’s presidency. Asian Americans Advancing Justice-Atlanta, a Georgia-based civil rights organization, said other detained workers were from China, Japan, Guatemala, Colombia, Chile, Mexico, Ecuador and Venezuela.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio and South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Hyun met Sept.10, where Rubio said the United States welcomed South Korean investments in the country and sought to 'deepen cooperation on this front,' according to Tommy Pigott, a principal deputy spokesperson for the State Department.

The South Korean foreign minister said in a Sept.10 X post that he sought assurances that the detained workers would be allowed to promptly return to South Korea without being physically restrained. U.S. immigration authorities routinely handcuff and shackle immigrants on deportation flights.

Cho also called for changes on visas to prevent similar issues from occurring again.

Trump had offered to let the South Korean workers stay in the United States, hoping they would train American employees, South Korean officials said. The offer apparently delayed the workers’ departure by a day. Only one of the Korean workers decided to stay in America.

Among those aboard the Korean Air charter, 316 were South Korean, according to Yonhap News, a Korean news agency. Additionally, 10 Chinese workers arrested in the raid, along with three Japanese and one Indonesian worker were also on the Korean Air flight.

A USA TODAY request to the White House for comment was not immediately returned.

Contributing: Reuters