Bust at an E.V. battery plant: "Immigration officials arrested nearly 500 workers, most of them South Korean citizens, at the construction site of an electric vehicle battery plant in Georgia on Thursday," reports The New York Times. The Hyundai plant raid was the largest single-site immigration bust in recent history. The people arrested were accused of belonging to one of three categories: They'd illegally crossed in the first place, or they'd received a visa waiver that prohibited working, or they'd overstayed a visa. Most of them were classified as subcontractors, and some of them were working to complete construction of the plant.
"The unfinished battery plant represented the kind of strategic investment the United States has welcomed from South Korea in recent years—one that promised to create manufacturing jobs and build up a growing industry," adds the Times. Georgia's governor, who has visited South Korea twice, has spent a lot of time courting investment, luring semiconductor material, solar panel, and battery manufacturers to his state.
"Seoul-based Hyundai, whose U.S. sales have hit record monthly highs for nearly a year straight, has pledged $26 billion in fresh American investments since Trump took office earlier this year—including $5 billion after South Korea's leader visited the White House early last week," reports The Wall Street Journal.
