On September 4, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents rounded up 434 South Korean nationals who were working at the construction site of an electric vehicle (EV) battery plant in Georgia. The plant was jointly built by two South Korean companies, Hyundai Motor Group and LG Energy Solution.
The biggest single ICE raid to date sent immediate shock waves through South Korea and the United States alike, coming against the backdrop of Donald Trump’s arm-twisting tactics to extract hefty US tariffs and generous investments from Seoul.
For the Left and organized labor in both countries, the raid was a multifaceted snapshot of the way in which labor, at home and worldwide, is being violently stifled by Trump’s unilateral bid to recast global trade and order in favor of the US ruling elite.
Both Hyundai Motor and LG form part of the chaebol, South Korea’s family-controlled industrial conglomerates. The Hyundai Motor Group includes its two flagship automobile makers, Hyundai Motor and Kia Corporation, and about seventy automobile-related affiliates. It is the world’s third-largest auto producer by sales volume. In addition to LG Energy Solution, the LG Group consists of LG Electronics and LG Chem, plus more than fifty affiliates.
In 2024 alone, Hyundai Motor and Kia Corp turned out about 700,000 vehicles at their operations in the United States. The battery project was the result of Georgia’s Republican governor Brian Kemp’s multiyear courtship of an auto conglomerate that was desperate to shift away from its costly and demographically…
Auteur: Kap Seol
