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Donald Trump halted the deportation of hundreds of South Korean workers arrested during an immigration enforcement raid and proposed they stay to train Americans, according to South Korean officials.
President Trump told officials to “encourage” the workers arrested at the Hyundai-LG battery plant in Georgia to remain in the country, South Korean diplomats said in a Washington briefing. The workers were initially due to fly to Seoul on Wednesday.
The US president “emphasised that the detained Korean nationals were skilled workers and suggested they either remain in the US to contribute to training the American workforce or be returned to Korea, depending on Seoul’s stance”, said a South Korean official.
The official said that “many of the detainees were exhausted and in shock, and [South Korean foreign minister Cho Hyun] recommended that they first return to Korea and later be allowed to return to work if necessary”.
The chartered flight is now expected to depart Atlanta on Thursday at noon in Atlanta.
Of the workers due to be transported to Seoul, 330 — among them 316 Koreans, 10 Chinese, three Japanese and one Indonesian national, according to South Korea’s state-owned news agency Yonhap — chose to board the flight, with one South Korean choosing to remain in the US, they added.
The workers were arrested during a raid last week on the battery plant, a joint venture between Korean conglomerates Hyundai and LG. US Immigration and Customs Enforcement later released a video of workers in yellow vests shackled at the ankles, wrists and waist.
Wednesday’s briefing took place after a meeting between secretary of state Marco Rubio and South Korea’s Cho.
Cho told reporters after his talks with Rubio that the two countries had agreed that the workers would not be shackled while being transported to Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, and that Seoul had “secured assurances that they will face no problems re-entering the United States in the future to work”.
Cho added that he and Rubio had agreed to form a working group to explore the establishment of a working visa programme for South Korean nationals.
The South Korean foreign ministry official told reporters that the decision not to restrain the detainees physically while they are transported to the airport reflected the “deep bond” forged between Trump and South Korea President Lee Jae Myung at a summit in Washington last month.
Korean companies are pouring tens of billions of dollars into building advanced manufacturing facilities in the US to produce chips, batteries and electric vehicles, with the bulk of the investment being made in Republican-majority states in the south and south-east.
Speaking on Thursday, President Lee Jae Myung said that Korean companies expanding in the US “are dismayed by the situation”, and would be “more hesitant” about investing more in the country.
“Our workers are not there for permanent stay — they are needed to install equipment because there are no US workers [with the necessary skills] there,” Lee told a press conference. “This will have a significant impact on our investments in the US going forward.”
Trump wrote in a social media post following the raid that he encouraged foreign companies investing in the US to “LEGALLY bring your very smart people, with great technical talent, to build World Class products”.
Additional reporting by Song Jung-a in Seoul
