South Korea said on Monday that it wants hundreds of its citizens who were arrested last week during a major US immigration attack on a car battery project and will soon flown home to get back into the United States.
Foreign Minister Cho Hyun flies out to Washington on Monday night and meets with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio during his journey to solve the problem. Cho also said he would ask for the US visa system for Korean workers to be streamlined in the future.
About 300 South Koreans were arrested on the site of a $ 4.3 billion project by Hyundai Motor and LG Energy Solution to build batteries for electric cars for a $ 4.3 billion project of Hyundai Motor and LG Energy Solution to build batteries. It was the largest enforcement operation in the single place in the History of Institute of Homeland Security’s investigative operations.
Raid sent shock waves through South Korea, a large American ally who has tried to end a US trade agreement agreed in late July. It came only 10 days after South Korea’s new president, Lee Jae Myung, met with US President Donald Trump in Washington and the two promised closer business ties.
In addition to potentially tiling bilateral ties, the development has shed fresh light on how many foreign companies investing in the United States have struggled to find qualified American workers.
Seoul said on Sunday that discussions to arrange the release of workers who were mostly employed by subcontractors were largely completed. A plan is in the works to fly them home on a chartered plane this week below what a South Korean Foreign Ministry said would be called a “voluntary departure”.
“From the start, we negotiated with the assumption that there should be no personal disadvantage (to the detained workers),” CHO told a parliamentary consultation on Monday.
Details of how workers may have violated immigration rules have not been released by the authorities or businesses, but South Korean legislators on Monday said some may have exceeded the limits of a 90-day visa exemption program or a B-1 temporary business visa.
South Korea Finance Minister Koo Yun-Cheol said on Monday he had heard that some experts had traveled from South Korea to help with a test run of the factory to start production in October.
“You have to get a visa to do a test run, but it is very difficult to get an official visa. Time was running out and I think experts went to the United States,” he said.
Horror in South Korea
Seoul has expressed its accident over the arrests and the public release of recordings showing the operation involving armored vehicles and coherence by workers.
Trump, who has increased deportations nationwide as his administration cracked down on illegal immigrants, said last week he had not been aware of the raid. He called the detained “illegal foreigners”.
On Sunday, he urged foreign companies that invested in the United States to “respect our country’s immigration legislation”, but sounded more a settlement.
“Your investments are welcome and we encourage you to legally bring your very smart people with great technical talent to build world -class products and we will make it quickly and legally possible for you to do so,” he said of truth socially.
Hyundai Motor is one of the largest foreign investors in the United States and is among South Korean companies participating in a $ 150 billion promise in foreign direct investment in the United States, coming to the peak of a $ 350 billion fund that the South Korean government has separated pledged.
A spokesman for the car manufacturer said some employees had been asked to suspend non-essential trips to the United States.
LGES has also suspended most staff business trips to the United States and remembers South Korea-based employees now in the country.
Last week, the battery manufacturer said it is working with US authorities and had paused construction work at the factory.
A spokesman for Hyundai Motor said last week that none of the detained people were employed directly by the car manufacturer and that the production of electric vehicles at the scattered site was not affected.
Companies rejected further comment Monday.
