South Korea says it is helping citizens return voluntarily after huge Hyundai raid

The South Korean government said Monday that it was arranging for hundreds of its nationals to leave the United States voluntarily after they were detained in an immigration raid on a Hyundai facility in Georgia that has strained relations with the key U.S. ally

The South Korean government said Monday that it was arranging for hundreds of its nationals to leave the United States voluntarily after they were detained in an immigration raid on a Hyundai facility in Georgia that has strained relations with the key U.S. ally.

The South Korean foreign ministry said it was in consultations with U.S. officials to ensure the return of its detained nationals “at the earliest possible date.”

“We will not let down our guard until every one of our people returns safely,” a South Korean foreign ministry official said in a background briefing.

About 300 mostly South Korean nationals were detained Thursday when officials from Homeland Security Investigations, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and other federal agencies raided a construction site in the town of Ellabell, where the South Korean companies Hyundai and LG Energy Solution are jointly building a battery plant next to their manufacturing facility for electric vehicles.

“I will make it clear that if completion [of the factory] is delayed, the United States will also suffer significant losses,” South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Hyu told lawmakers on Monday.