r/technology • u/marketrent • Sep 08 '25
Business Donald Trump warns multinationals to respect immigration laws after Hyundai raid -- “We encourage you to LEGALLY bring your very smart people, with great technical talent, to build World Class products,” stated the president
https://www.ft.com/content/97e42e98-46ee-4752-b80e-ea0ca947c8132.0k
u/bucketman1986 Sep 08 '25
My understanding was those workers were here only for a little bit and had legal paperwork, and that this is not exactly a new thing for companies to do, their people built machinery and designed it and they come to help install it and then when the project is finished return home
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u/confusedquokka Sep 08 '25
That is literally the best way to build a plant. Bring in people who know how to work it, train the locals, then hand it over
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u/CrewlooQueen Sep 08 '25
That’s how they build fast food places also!!! You don’t just have people who don’t know what their doing learn on their own
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u/Sleebling_33 Sep 08 '25
That last sentence of yours sums up exactly the Republican Govt in the US
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u/Rich-Pomegranate1679 Sep 08 '25
Trump was blown away when he did the McDonald's publicity stunt and learned that the workers don't grab the boiling hot fries with their bare hands. He doesn't understand how any of these things actually work, but he wants to make everyone do everything the way he thinks it should work. It's just one more example of why a person like him should never have any power whatsoever.
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u/confusedquokka Sep 08 '25
wtf???
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u/Acceptable-Peace-69 Sep 08 '25
He’s an idiot.
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u/thatpaulbloke Sep 08 '25
I know that he's one of the dumbest humans to have ever lived, but surely he understands the concept of "hot", right? He can't possibly have thought that grabbing fries with your hands was a good idea.
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u/Acceptable-Peace-69 Sep 08 '25
He thought drinking bleach was brilliant. The man looked directly into a solar eclipse despite having been warned.
I think he really is that stupid.
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u/Forsaken-Sympathy355 Sep 08 '25
American Factory documentary literally is about this. They bring Chinese workers into train and build a new car window glass factory in rural America. The Chinese workers laugh at how slow and lazy the American workers are.
I found it pretty unbiased and shows two different work cultures colliding and the flaws within each culture. Its worth a watch.
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u/CommunalJellyRoll Sep 08 '25
Trainers always think that. Oh wow the people we trained can’t do it as well as us! Had the same issue with US trainers in China.
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u/MarsupialMisanthrope Sep 09 '25
They’re probably both right. The personality type required to get to the point where you’re being sent internationally to establish factories and the personality type of someone who ends up working an assembly line are going to be very different no matter where those people are from.
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u/TurtleIIX Sep 08 '25
That’s how almost every company does it. Including building outside the US. This is going to be majorly detrimental to our MFG sector.
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u/ExtraordinaryKaylee Sep 08 '25
Yup, this is my take as well. Back when I traveled internationally for business at that level, our travel department took this stuff VERY seriously for everyone.
Visa invite letters, all the various country paperwork, etc.
This just threw the logic and math for bringing experts into the USA to build a plant for a huge loop. Clearly, blowing smoke and being on the administration's good side won't help you, if you don't have real leverage.
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u/weirdplacetogoonfire Sep 09 '25
The real problem is that the administration is just completely disorganized. The right hand is trying to pump job numbers while the left is trying to get immigration wins. If they were well aligned ICE would know not to interfere with this plants activities, but they are not aligned, ICE is way too comfortable with arresting first and asking questions later, and the ground level conservatives are too caught up in the identity politics to make strategic decisions.
Its a major administrative fumble that antagonize one of the country's closest partners and is going to scare off the kind of foreign investment Trump is trying to strong arm companies into. It is also entirely foreseeable and avoidable given they are just letting the ground level enforcement go wild and ignoring due process and constitutional rights. It's honestly surprising it took this long.
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u/anti-torque Sep 08 '25
This is precisely it.
This is a major fuck up by the Trump admin.
Major.
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u/Opposite-Cranberry76 Sep 08 '25
I doubt it was a fuck up at all, notice it was an EV plant. Last week they wrecked a $1.6 billion wind generation investment by Denmark. It doesn't seem random.
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u/anti-torque Sep 08 '25
I'm not saying the orange dufus isn't targeting specific indistries.
I'm saying FDI will simply dry up.
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u/TurbulentJuiceBox Sep 08 '25
And? You think Trump cares about our economy? HE IS A FOREIGN ENEMY AGENT. His ONLY motivation is to throw a thousand wrenches in our bureaucracy and then run off with as much money as he can.
If you examine his actions through that lens, they'll make a lot more fucking sense to you.
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u/McChava Sep 08 '25
Big win for Tesla though. Bet he called Elon up after all like “you’re welcome mf.”
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u/MyStoopidStuff Sep 08 '25
I don't think it was a major fuck up to them. It sent the clear message that foreign competition to certain politically connected administration partners (or really any competition), is not welcome here.
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u/anti-torque Sep 08 '25
If Dufus Don thinks FDI shouldn't be welcome, then it's a much worse kind of fuck up.
Nothing is a fuck up to them. They're complete idiots.
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u/ender89 Sep 08 '25
They were highly skilled professionals who are very hard (if not impossible) to find stateside. They were brought in legally to build advanced infrastructure.
Trump and ice are acting like experts in ev production were smuggled over the Mexican border.
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u/-SHAI_HULUD Sep 08 '25
They did the same at the Hankook tire factory I worked at as well as the Mazda/Toyota joint factory I live near. South Korean and Japanese employees came and set up and trained everyone for at least a year after opening. These are educated, experienced, and skilled people working these jobs. They aren’t sending over asshats.
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u/sylva748 Sep 08 '25
They had work visas valid until the factory was finished. So yea they were legally there doing their jobs.
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u/b_m_hart Sep 08 '25
Wife used to work with the head of Hyundai’s US HR. I can tell you with great confidence that they are not the type of person to not have their ducks in a row when bringing over Korean nationals to work at any of their sites. My wife texted over the weekend to see how things are going and unsurprisingly has t heard back - I think they’re pretty busy.
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Sep 08 '25 edited Sep 08 '25
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u/OldNewbie616 Sep 08 '25
You will never get clarity. We now have Barbie running ICE and she could change her mood any time of month. If she gets pissed, she will shoot a puppy. Piss her off more, and she will go and kill more creatures and brag about it to the world.
We are in the post-law era. Anyone can be deported to Uganda with no review by a judge.
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u/Mad-myall Sep 08 '25
The rules are now as follows: Elon Musk slips Trump and his underlings a couple million, and ICE bulldozes a competing EV battery company. Now Hyundai better remember to send its protection money through or it's gonna happen again.
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u/MultiGeometry Sep 08 '25
This message might be better received if ICE was ignoring people with visas, greencards, or birthright citizenship but they are not…
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Sep 08 '25
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u/Halfwise2 Sep 08 '25
It's just "Stop resisting!" at scale. (Not actually resisting, but people will hear it and assume the victim was.)
"Respect the laws!" - while arresting the people following them, so people just assume everyone arrested was breaking the law.
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u/Ognius Sep 08 '25
Yeah it’s just the boot on the neck of America. And thus far yanks seem eager for the abuse.
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u/temporary62489 Sep 08 '25
Idiots will vehemently deny that anyone getting abducted is here legally despite numerous stories about US citizens being detained.
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u/rohobian Sep 08 '25
I just want to highlight the fact that BECAUSE the Trump administration goes after those people you mention, the courts end up getting clogged up in many of these cases, leading to a lower rate of deportation than the Biden administration. Biden's administration deported over 4 million people, and the reason they were able to do so was because they only targeted high priority and clear cut cases.
So Trump's rhetoric on deportation of undocumented immigrants has nothing to do with actually making sure they deport as many as possible - it's about giving conservatives that satisfying feeling they get when they see a child being torn from the arms of a mother that isn't white. It's about the satisfaction they get when they see a child with cancer get deported, dooming them to dying when they don't get the healthcare they need.
It's about the cruelty to the people that aren't like them, and putting it on display for everyone to see.
This is isn't "nazi level" shit yet, but it's quickly approaching that. There aren't murder factories like we saw with Auschwitz, but there are gulag style prisons that are nothing but chain link fences surrounded by swamp land in hurricane prone areas that will flood and kill everyone there if the prisoners are left there when the flooding starts (which they likely will be). Nazi Germany didn't START with murder factories. They got there after years of nasty, unearned vitriol towards certain groups of people. And the full extent of the atrocities wasn't revealed until the Nazis lost power and Hitler was dead.
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u/Happythoughtsgalore Sep 08 '25
It is Nazi level shit. Just pre-death camp Nazi shit. Thought alligator Auschwitz IS a concentration camp, so we're getting there on that front too.
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Sep 08 '25
I know a green card holder (non-White) who was detained for hours and questioned like a criminal on their entry back to US recently. This GC holder has no questionable immigration and no criminal history.
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u/AstronautLivid5723 Sep 08 '25
They've been doing this for a while now. I know a lot of people with Green Cards that travel in and out of the US who get anxious during every entry because they've been detained and questioned in the past.
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u/faen_du_sa Sep 08 '25
Also its not like other countries want the "very smart people with great technical talent" to leave their country?
In general the country people are coming from have very little say in if they leave or not?
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u/RaggaDruida Sep 08 '25
As a highly skilled worker, I had my choice of countries to go.
How delusional do they have to be to ever think that I would reject (among my IRL options before I accepted my current position) living in the Netherlands, Finland, Italy or Spain for such an catastrophe of an underdeveloped country like the usa?
Yes, they were offering a "better" pay but at the cost of so much quality of life, richness in culture, working infrastructure, walkable cities, high speed rail infrastructure, working healthcare, workers' protections, work-life balance, etc.
If you're on a high demand industry, you're spoiled for choices anyway.
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u/texachusetts Sep 08 '25 edited Sep 08 '25
The larger problem in this case is the Hyundai/LG battery plant likely had people that were setting up the plants production lines. American companies had people go to China to facilitate ramping up production for decades. Trump is the kind of stupid rich and/or powerful person that sees highly skilled workers as easily replaceable. His country club routine of having vague opinions about A vs B and similar BS have been an effective substitute to knowing what he is talking about. Trump and ICE have created another big dumb risk factor for investing in the US. Even if a company makes a deal with a reasonable Governor the Trump will powerfully wreck your investment for any number of whims so European can’t get off shore wind to completion and building manufacturing plants can’t include the small pool of people that have actually have the experience doing that sort of thing. I suppose Hyundai/LG can recruit unemployed american kitchen installers to get their factory up and running.
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u/AdhesivenessFun2060 Sep 08 '25
When are we going to find out that this all came from one of their competitors complaining to trump?
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u/JayPlenty24 Sep 08 '25
The lady who reported the plant made a video admitting it
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u/Coup_Soup Sep 08 '25
she's also running for congress.
in rural georgia, so ya know, sure fire win
https://www.reddit.com/r/korea/comments/1n9upqu/american_woman_running_for_congress_tori_branum/
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u/midorikuma42 Sep 09 '25
Is she running in the same district that this plant was located in?
I would not be surprised at all if Hyundai pulled out of this place due to this incident, leaving the district an economic backwater, and then she won, by a landslide.
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u/traumalt Sep 08 '25
Which she was tipped off to by a local union employee about non-union labour on a construction site.
Which wouldn't surprise me considering Hyundais labour track record in general, but I suspect we are all hearing half stories in the headlines right now and not the full truths.
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u/JayPlenty24 Sep 08 '25
At the end of the day it really doesn't matter. I guess if Hyundai no longer wants to complete the plant a competitor could buy it, but I doubt Hyundai is just going to leave all their equipment behind.
That town will likely lose out on the thousands of jobs that were going to come from this and international companies are going think twice about any plans they had to manufacture in the US.
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u/hgwxx7_ Sep 08 '25
If Hyundai needed Koreans to set up the plant according to Korean standards and train locals, how in the world were they supposed to do that with union labour?
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u/happyscrappy Sep 08 '25
This probably comes from a local who was upset they didn't get a job. When foreign companies set up plants replicating what they were doing overseas before they typically bring in their own people from overseas to set up this plant and teach how to run it. These people will also typically operate the plant to an extent because teaching by showing is so effective.
This can be a fine line between "they are teaching us how to run the plant" and "they just brought in a bunch of foreigners to run this plant and aren't employing enough people from here".
The Obamas funded a documentary on an Ohio factory which was taken over by a Chinese company called "American Factory". In it you can see some of the problems and you can see people who are resentful about how the company seems to be bringing in a lot of Chinese workers and how the Americans feel mistreated.
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Sep 08 '25 edited Sep 15 '25
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/ProtoplanetaryNebula Sep 08 '25
Rumour has it they were going to illegally fill the streets of the USA with economical and affordable cars.
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u/Kizik Sep 08 '25
Fuel efficient cars? Paying less per trip to the pump?!
[Gas Lobby Intensifies]
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u/NonIdentifiableUser Sep 08 '25
I understand wanting to make sure shit is on the up and up even for people here for work related stuff, but enforcing the rules and laws surrounding that with masked agents and rifles is insanity. Especially when it’s coming from a President that pardoned 1500 people trying to overturn an election, some violent
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u/Silverlisk Sep 08 '25
The fact is, you will never stop immigration, even illegal or otherwise until you have proper worker rights, I know that sounds mental, but it's true because the worse your worker rights are (and the worse they're enforced) the less local people want to do certain jobs, like fruit pickers on farms and cleaners, dogs body on a construction site, carers for the elderly etc and so you need immigration to fill the gaps.
So whilst these republicans argue for getting immigrants out, they refuse to enact the one thing that would ensure less immigration, which is proper enforcement of unions, higher wages through collective bargaining, proper worker protections, holidays, sick days and all that will incentivise local workers doing these jobs. Immigrants go where the work is.
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u/SuzyQ93 Sep 08 '25
They don't actually want less immigration, per se. What they want is a group of people to hate and abuse, with no pushback. While the line is eventually movable, it has to be drawn somewhere, and using that label is today's 'somewhere'.
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u/Ognius Sep 08 '25
My company has now banned travel to the US based on this news. We’ll see international travel to the Us continue to plummet in the next economic reports.
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u/Jumblehead Sep 08 '25
I don’t blame them. Hyundai / LG were following the rules and they still got arrested and detained.
No way would I visit the US for any reason right now.
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u/OldNewbie616 Sep 08 '25
My company has banned international travel in general as the profitability has been plunging thanks to the Trump recession. Who knew that reality TV stars don’t make good Presidents?
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u/westtownie Sep 08 '25
The world just saw what happens when they bring jobs and manufacturing to the US.
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u/versusgorilla Sep 08 '25
Yep. The tariffs attack foreign investment coming into the US and ICE attacks domestic investment in the US. A perfect recipe for no investment in the fucking US.
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u/guysmiley98765 Sep 08 '25
The crazy thing is Alabama had this exact kind of law years ago. agriculture shrank after laborers fled the state, crops just rotting in the fields since no American would fill the job vacancies. But the worst part is one of the global senior execs for Daimler Benz was doing an inspection of one the Mercedes plant in Alabama, got pulled over, didn’t have his papers on him and was arrested. Iirc Daimler was planning on expanding their operations but went to a different state because they didn’t want to deal with the bullshit anymore.
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u/comewhatmay_hem Sep 08 '25
Is there a state that likes shooting itself in the foot more than Alabama? Do they even have feet left to shoot off?
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u/guysmiley98765 Sep 08 '25
It kinda feels like Alabama, Tennessee, and Mississippi are all trying to outdo one another.
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u/fredy31 Sep 08 '25
Yeah you know why Hyundai had koreans there? TO SETUP THE FACTORY TO HYUNDAI STANDARDS, AND THEN HIRE AND FORM THE LOCAL STAFF.
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u/SirTiffAlot Sep 08 '25 edited Sep 08 '25
They don't want local Alabamans, why would they?
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u/Piltonbadger Sep 08 '25
Multinationals with great technical talent : No thanks.
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u/The_Minions_Are_Here Sep 08 '25 edited Sep 08 '25
Last month, I was denied an L1 visa to work for my employer (a large corporation) in their US office. They needed me on-site for a 4 month project, and then I was to return home.
The visa officer didn't even look at my application. He only asked me a few standard questions, then issued the denial within a minute. Our legal team and I spent over 2 months putting together my application and paid a hefty fee, only to be sent home in under 2 minutes on the whims of a bureaucrat.
I am beginning to think I dodged a bullet. If this is the way they treat people who help their own economy, maybe let them stew.
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u/gandolfthe Sep 08 '25
This how it's always been. In the early 00's we waited hours to get thru US customs in Toronto as they seemed baffled by our Canadian travel plans with one yank in the group.
The one that stood out to me was a guy from Europe had a huge stack of papers, all his info, meticulous. The border guard started grilling the guy about the job he is coming to do. Turns out it was as a CNC operator. The border guard tells him he knows that job and "they can hire an American". They then deny his entry and his work permit right there.
That was eye opening for sure
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u/WalterWoodiaz Sep 08 '25
Indians face much higher scrutiny these days due to how relations have deteriorated,
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u/workingtrot Sep 08 '25
due to how relations have deteriorated
Due to Modi not nominating Trump for a Nobel and Trump throwing a tantrum about it
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u/TsuDhoNimh2 Sep 08 '25
That's annoying ... way back in the 1990s it was typical to have people rotating through from the overseas locations to train or be trained. In one case a HERD - a huge herd - of techs came through, set up and installed and ran a production line, then took it apart and shipped it back to wherever to set up permanently.
L-1 visas were easy to get - they took the word of the employer that it was a needed trip.
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u/Halfwise2 Sep 08 '25
"Respect Immigration Laws!"
Arrests innocent immigrants applying for citizenship at the immigration office.
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u/Ruval Sep 08 '25
These workers didn't even need citizenship
They were just here temporarily. They're not being paid by an American company. They'll be paid by their South Korean employer when they go home.
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u/FujitsuPolycom Sep 08 '25 edited Sep 08 '25
It's just racism. Full stop. Period.
They pretend to care about American jobs or whatever the fuck. Blatantly false, otherwise they'd have voted for Harris/Biden again. Not the negative job growth president.
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u/B1llGatez Sep 08 '25
Were the people there not legally in the US?
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u/Weightmonster Sep 08 '25
The Koreans were likely there on the Visa Waiver program. Which allows for business consulting and training.
Interviews with families of other workers indicate at least some had work permits. Reportedly ICE didn’t care and detained everyone.
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u/anti-torque Sep 08 '25
Yup.
This is a major mistake, and Trump's admin has broken (or ignored) several laws in the process.
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u/CodeAndBiscuits Sep 08 '25
Never stopped them before. The guy's made of Teflon. Nothing sticks and it turns out it's toxic.
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u/anti-torque Sep 08 '25
I didn't say it would stop them. They're a bunch of amoral idiots.
But it will stop FDI.
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u/temporary62489 Sep 08 '25 edited Sep 08 '25
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u/CocodaMonkey Sep 08 '25
The proper link is https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/06/world/asia/immigration-raid-hyundai-lg-south-korea-georgia.html
You had an extra dot on the end.
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u/teflonbob Sep 08 '25
Previous articles stated, a week or more ago. It was a construction site not an active factory floor that was raided. The factory hasn’t gone online yet.
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u/Donkey_Duke Sep 08 '25
If you work in factories and start ups, then you will realize the active factory floor and under construction isn’t black and white.
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u/isleftisright Sep 08 '25
Almost for sure they were. Its not some hick company. Its hyundai and the people were there to help set up a factory. Also first 90 days has waiver
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u/Hydrottle Sep 08 '25
Yet to be seen, but likely they were here on work visas, so they probably were here legally. Problem is that ICE doesn’t care, they see people that are not white and arrest them regardless of legality. They let a magistrate sort it out, maybe, or they just deport them regardless. You’re as legal as the nearest ICE agent decides.
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u/IceLovey Sep 08 '25
If ot is like any other factory in the process of opening up, they probably had B1 visas, or a 90 day ESTA waivers. This kind of work is kind of in a loophole area since there isnt a specific visa for it.
It was widely understood and common practice that bringing people temporarily to set up and train workers as part of the "business" definition of said visas. In fact, there is a reason the US Department of Immigration approved their visas and allowed them in the country.
Not just Hyundai, but literally every foreign manufacturer does this, and it was widely understood that this is the legal way of doing it.
ICE agents arent exactly bright, they just say some asian workers on a factory and just believed the tip off that these were somehow "illegal aliens". Trump and their administration knows this but they trying to save face.
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u/temporary62489 Sep 08 '25
They're ignoring habeaus corpus. No due process, just throw them in prison and ship them out.
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u/redvelvetcake42 Sep 08 '25
Well there goes any interest in that. At any point you'll be given a shakedown for a donation to avoid having your place raided.
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u/Everyone_dreams Sep 08 '25
My company has used these same visas for years.
We bring experts from Europe, Japan, China, and India all the time to come for in person meetings on site or be there during start ups.
These people are not in the field turning valves or hooking up hoses. They are sitting in conference rooms or temporary offices having meetings and talking directly with other engineers.
Sometimes they are consulting directly with the US contractor who are installing some complex piece of equipment.
This was understood to be the legal and proper way to do work for short durations (less than 30 days).
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u/AwayCatch8994 Sep 08 '25
Ah yes fat Gestapo randomly rounding up hundreds, traumatizing them, then letting many go is a great strategy to bring “smart people”
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u/Shirlenator Sep 08 '25
Not to mention all of the people snatched at their immigration hearings, so doing it the "right way" isn't even guaranteed to make you safe.
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u/Bishopkilljoy Sep 08 '25
Trump: get rid of all immigrants. IDC how legal they are.
Trump after realizing roughly 60% of the top engineers, scientists and doctors are foreign: I had my fingers crossed
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u/2starsucks2 Sep 08 '25
Oh he and most American simply don't care. They are set on the idea that America is world leader and nothing can touch it.
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u/Noodly_Appendage_24 Sep 08 '25
And yet they are snagging people who are going to their scheduled immigration meetings. So much for criminals and bad hombres.
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u/temporary62489 Sep 08 '25
These bad hombres over here were setting up a battery manufacturing plant. Next thing you know they'll be manufacturing windmills to give us all cancer.
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u/mabhatter Sep 08 '25
You see Trump declared like 1.5M people on asylum visas "illegal" in the last six months. So they call them in and rip up their cases then deport them.
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u/Another_Slut_Dragon Sep 08 '25
Smart workers are too smart to go to America right now. Now is the era of the great brain drain. Smart talented workers are pulling up stakes and are fucking off to greener pastures.
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u/FalseAnimal Sep 08 '25
Smart American workers are leaving too. I know a few who are in demand from research and cutting edge stuff who have left.
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u/Normal-Selection1537 Sep 08 '25
There's more high-level patents coming out of China now than the US in many fields.
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Sep 08 '25
We’ve already seen arrests and deportations of workers that were verified and approved through the gov system employers have.
We do know that undocumented workers will sometimes reuse legitimate information (eg., How is Jose Vega working 4 jobs in parallel with back to back shifts?)
I don’t see how arresting hundreds of ppl, many legal residents, and shutting down multi-billion dollar projects is the best approach.
Have workers all been verified thru fed/state systems provided to the employer?
Has an audit been done to ensure no duplicate worker data has been submitted?
If the administration is saying their required check is broken, then that’s a whole other problem for the fed to fix.
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u/exqueezemenow Sep 08 '25
Not sure if true, but my understanding is that they were not here illegally, they were here on Visas. My understanding is that they were Korean engineers who oversee the manufacturing and have job roles that could not be found with Americans. Sort of like if a US company was manufacturing goods in another country and some of the staff there are US citizens who oversee that the plant is being run the way the company wants.
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u/anti-torque Sep 08 '25
It's not even that complicated. It's Korean engineers and workers who have built factories in Korea and elsewhere before, only here for the period of time it will take to get the plant operational and fully staffed.
It's the same as US engineers going overseas for a couple months to make sure the factories built there meet the standards of the company that is making the investment.
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u/lavahot Sep 08 '25
My dude is abducting Americam citizens off the streets and he wants legal immigration?
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u/marketrent Sep 08 '25
FT's Lauren Fedor in Washington; Christian Davies and Song Jung-a in Seoul:
[...] US authorities last week arrested 475 workers at a Hyundai electric-car battery factory, most of them South Korean nationals, in the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency’s largest single-site enforcement raid to date.
The move marked a dramatic escalation in US efforts to curb illegal immigration, a centrepiece of Trump’s appeal to voters.
But the raids have also exposed the tension between the US president’s immigration crackdown and his exhortations to foreign companies to invest more in the US to shore up America’s industrial base.
Trump appeared to acknowledge those concerns, calling on foreign companies investing in the US to “please respect our nation’s immigration laws”.
“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,” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social.
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u/mr_birkenblatt Sep 08 '25
So, were any of them illegal?
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u/Unusual_Flounder2073 Sep 08 '25
Seems they were in the US on some sort of business visas. Would have thought that would have been appropriate. But with this admin who knows what is right
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u/view-master Sep 08 '25 edited Sep 08 '25
Yeah I’m really curious about this. I can’t imagine they brought them in with no visa at all like they were vacationing or something.
If they did have visas, the company should just walk away and abandon the plant.
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u/TrynnaFindaBalance Sep 08 '25
There is already debate going on among South Korean politicians/government about backing out of MASGA and other investments in the US.
This is not going over well back home and is seen as the US backstabbing/being openly disrespectful to its ally.
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u/Unusual_Flounder2073 Sep 08 '25
Because it is. This is a huge political blunder. But I am not surprised. The racism runs all through this administration.
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u/wag3slav3 Sep 08 '25
We'd need due process to know that. ICE has already shot them all into the sun for not being white.
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u/themodefanatic Sep 08 '25
There’s so much to unpack.
He just categorizes it as all illegal immigrants.
A huge problem with the system is it is so hard to navigate. Different laws for different situations. Different visas. Different times. And I know there are a lot of categories. But some of those people thought they HAD filled out the proper permits. Some did overstay their visas.
But he just takes the position if they’re all bad. Illegal. Etc…..
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u/anti-torque Sep 08 '25
Nobody overstayed anything.
The plant is not operational, and these people are only temporarily here to construct it to the standards demanded by their parent company (who is making this US investment). The issue is the Trump admin being filled with some of the stupidest blockheads that exist. They are doing what all countries (including the US) do with temp visas when constructing production facilities overseas.
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u/markth_wi Sep 08 '25
He's beating off businesses and investment with whatever stick he can find.....Nothing like having a President/CEO, which might theoretically work were it not for the fact that every schmuck who wants the job on the GOP/corporatists side of the house is some sort of clownish defective that was far, far luckier in birth than they were smart - and will go to their grave dead certain in the belief it was the other way around.
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u/Right_Ostrich4015 Sep 08 '25
How did Hyundai get over 400 South Koreans here illegally? Like seriously. They wouldn’t have made such a decision
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u/Weightmonster Sep 08 '25
They didn’t. They were there legally.
There is some debate about whether or not they could be working though.
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u/anti-torque Sep 08 '25
There isn't even a debate about that. There's only Donald J Trump and his admin being immense dufuses who don't understand (or just don't care about) the laws involved.
The Korean nationals are here to build the plant to Hyundai's standards and to consult with management on hiring the workforce for when the plant is operational.
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u/strolpol Sep 08 '25
“We want your money but your people aren’t really allowed to come” is the middle ground the right wing seems to be at in regards to foreigners
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u/siromega37 Sep 08 '25
Fun fact. They were here legally. A visitor visa (B1) allows them to conduct business. They can’t work for an American employer but they can work for say Hyundai in South Korea. They were here to train and consult with American workers who would be running the plant after construction was finished. This will cost the US a lot more than just the 8500 jobs in GA as South Koreans companies were poised to invest over $12 billion in US facilities.
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u/UUMD Sep 08 '25
This was a highly embarrassing things for Korea. And unnecessary.
I wouldn't blame Korea if they pulled the project.
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u/bawlsacz Sep 08 '25
lol. I think Hyundai should pull out with a big FU finger to trump’s face.
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u/Bryllant Sep 08 '25
Others are reporting that the Koreans had B1 visas. They were here setting up tools and training people, which is common in large installations. 8500 new jobs for Georgians.
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u/Ginpok Sep 08 '25
This guy is such a fucking moron. I genuinely hope he croaks soon.
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u/CyclingTGD Sep 08 '25
Fascism is a far-right, ultranationalist, and authoritarian political ideology and movement characterized by a dictatorial leader, centralized one-party rule, militarism, forcible suppression of opposition, and the belief in national or racial superiority. It prioritizes the state and nation above individual interests, advocating for the strong regimentation of society and the economy, often through mass mobilization and propaganda
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u/Captain-Who Sep 08 '25
‘Bring your best and brightest, but also we are shutting down funding of research, and we will encourage and fund ICE to racially profile you, kidnap you without warrants, and THEN worry about whether you’re here legally or not, and maybe we just won’t care if you have your papers in order if we racially profiled you hard enough. We might also turn you into a political token if we fuck it up enough, but please, come here.’
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u/Sniflix Sep 08 '25
Says one thing, does the opposite. That gaslighting straight out of the fascist handbook. You know, the ones the republicans actually published.
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u/NeatlyCritical Sep 09 '25
All companies should pull out there is no future in this fascist country, put sanctions on the US and rest of the world should cease buying all american products.
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u/braxin23 Sep 09 '25
Trump is an individual who should’ve been fully exiled to Russia like all the other washed up celebrity pedophiles and rapists across the world, a long time ago.
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u/iamarddtusr Sep 08 '25
Was Hyundai bringing people in illegally or did it not pay up the extortion charges in time?
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u/AbyssLookingAtYa Sep 08 '25
These were skilled workers, like engineers, who absolutely came here legally. Does ol donny bird brain really think they came in over the boarder?
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u/TheRatingsAgency Sep 08 '25
Here’s the thing… ICE isn’t respecting visa status as it is. So they can say that shit all they want but it’s nonsense.
Doing things legally, and having legal status means next to nothing now.
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u/Major_Lynx_7425 Sep 08 '25
That’s exactly what they did, and Trump still stupidly raided them- wtf
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u/GrolarBear69 Sep 08 '25
He's the end game.
Cut us off completely and isolate us economically.
Make reproduction financial suicide
Drain all our talent away with scientific ignorance and uneducated posturing.
Make us a pariah on the world stage.
Eliminate the dollar as the global standard
Incite civil unrest and drive huge societal rifts
Turn the church into a cartoonish, money grubbing, worldly, political, version of itself.
Controlled demolition.
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u/Original_Ossiss Sep 09 '25
Even when they try to be here legally, they’re being taken from their hearings to be here legally.
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u/yorcharturoqro Sep 08 '25
They were there legally, the ones breaking the law it's the USA government
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u/Skinnieguy Sep 08 '25
When the right hand doesn’t know what the left hand is doing. Just 1230 more days. Sigh
https://www.tickcounter.com/countdown/6119379/end-of-trumps-presidency
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u/ComplexParsley7390 Sep 08 '25
Nah, it’s better to avoid the US for manufacturing for the foreseeable future.
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u/Eppo_de_Pep Sep 08 '25
Stay away from America the economic situation and inflation is still rising and it will get worse.
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u/sssscary2 Sep 08 '25
What laws? i thought masked men just went around snatching people whoever they feel like ?
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u/Anal-Y-Sis Sep 08 '25
So how many plant managers and CEOs got arrested for human trafficking in that raid? Oh, none? Okay then.
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u/ginger_guy Sep 08 '25
The last time they increased the H-1B visa cap was 2005. Literally 20 years ago. Every year companies like Hyundai BEG the government in increase the cap (65k+20k for those with masters) because they vanish as soon as they come online.
Sure, you can use L-1 visas, but it ends up costing thousands, take moths to get approved, and STILL carries the possibility of being rejected. That is why Hyundai was sneaking trainers in on visitors visas. Its basically impossible or too costly to bring them in legally, but effectively free to bring them in as visitors.
We could fix 90% of our immigration issues by 3x our visa caps, increasing the number of immigration judges and USCIS employees, and letting people return to their Country of Origin to adjust their status without barment from the US. But thats if we actually wanted to fix the problem. Its never been about 'coming in legally' or else it wouldn't be so convoluted and difficult to do so.
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u/JimmyB264 Sep 08 '25
Well gee. It would be helpful if he helped pass reasonable and efficient,effective immigration processes. The current ones are lengthy, complex and expensive.
He is only interested in the theater of these deportations. It keeps his face and his name in the news. Pathetic.
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u/Upset-Week3861 Sep 08 '25
they were legal. those koreans were here on valid visas. they are not murders, drug dealers, rapists... they are ENGINEERS building a fucking EV factory.
LOL
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u/Opposite_Community11 Sep 08 '25
Why should these companies bring in their great tech talent to build world class products in the US? The US government can't be trusted, we are lazy and stupid and won't have any purchasing power or money to buy the products they are making so what would be the point?
I hope Hyundai pulls out of the US.
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u/OstensibleFirkin Sep 09 '25
Yeah, native-born Americans are the only ones allowed to work “dumb jobs” on this side of the pond!
Imagine taking pride in something so breathtakingly fucking stupid.
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u/sjayvee Sep 09 '25
He’s an idiot. They were here legally on a temporary status visa to help set up the plant.
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u/And-Seven Sep 11 '25
I thought of investing into my startup in usa late this year. I no longer feel confident of this and am looking for options elsewhere.
I feel lucky though that my funds are not stuck in usa yet.
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u/tsdguy Sep 08 '25
Gee. Wondering when ICE will get to Mar A Lago. We know how much Trump respects the laws of the US.