Korean workers arrested and detained by ICE in September will be filing a lawsuit against the agency. They were detained during an ICE operation at the Hyundai–LG battery plant in Georgia. This will be an individual lawsuit and the hiring companies will not be involved. However, they hope the deported workers will be allowed to return to the U.S.
The workers allege they were mistreated by ICE agents during the raid. According to ABC News, two hundred Korean workers will be filing the lawsuit over human rights violations and racial discrimination. Workers reported being held in chains during detention. Lawsuits also include excessive use of force during arrest and detention.
More than 300 South Korean workers at a battery plant owned jointly by Hyundai and LG Energy Solution were detained by ICE and deported in September. Many of those workers are preparing to sue ICE. @selinawangtv traveled to Asia and spoke to one of them. https://t.co/TTJBVGacyV pic.twitter.com/Ztukktf80K
— ABC News Live (@ABCNewsLive) November 11, 2025
The workers are seeking compensation for the damages. ICE arrested 475 people, and out of these, 317 turned out to be Korean engineers. These are skilled workers from Korea who had work visas and were legally employed in the billion-dollar plant in Georgia. Many of the detained workers do not know why they were arrested or what the visa issues were when they were hired to do the job.
Americans online are in support of the Korean workers, understanding that the deportation has been unfair. One user commented, “This is appalling and totally unacceptable. They came here in good faith to HELP our country, and to be treated this way is disgusting.”
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Something folks are missing here: this raid wasn’t about “illegals taking American jobs.” It was about ICE storming the Hyundai–LG battery plant in Georgia, part of a $7.6B Metaplant project that isn’t even operational yet.
They dragged out more than 300 South Korean… pic.twitter.com/7IQuGisEYg
— Christopher Webb (@cwebbonline) September 7, 2025
Some people did question the so-called visa irregularities and pointed out that it could be a fancy term for illegal immigrants. One user commented, “Why did they bring in hundreds of Koreans to build the factory instead of paying Americans to do it? Hyundai got this factory subsidized by US taxpayers on the promise of giving Americans jobs. Jobs to build the factory. Jobs to run the factory.”
The workers were in detention for a week—cut off from the outside. Besides, they were kept in harsh and degrading conditions with no privacy to use the toilets. According to the complaint, detainees slept on moldy mattresses in overcrowded rooms.
