Fallout from last week’s unprecedented immigration raid at a Georgia battery plant run by two South Korean firms is reverberating across the industry, highlighting risks to the billions of dollars the Asian nation has invested in America’s clean energy push.
Construction has now been disrupted at multiple LG Energy Solution Ltd. sites across the US while some Korean staff are balking at assignments over fears of being caught in similar crackdowns as the Trump administration vows tougher enforcement, people familiar with the matter said.
LG Energy has ordered the immediate return of all workers and contractors traveling under the US visa waiver program, known as ESTA, and advised those on short-term B-1 visas to remain at their hotels, one person said, asking not to be identified discussing internal guidance.
A Korean Air Lines Co. Boeing 747-8 from Seoul landed Wednesday morning at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, but the charter plane’s expected departure from Atlanta with South Korean nationals detained by US immigration authorities has been delayed, the airport said.
“The transport and departure operation planned for 2:30 p.m. will not take place today,” it said in a statement. No reason was given for the delay nor was a new time frame provided.
The Hyundai Motor Co.–LG Energy plant in the southern US state of Georgia is a cornerstone of America’s clean energy boom. But images of detainees shackled at the wrists, waist and ankles have fueled outrage in South Korea and rattled onlookers.
With some 300 people still detained, most of them on ESTA or B-1 visas that only permit limited business activity, others say they feel they too could easily have been rounded up.
“To see their employees treated like this, to the point of being banned from visiting the US again, companies would feel humiliated and ashamed,” Chang Sang-sik, head of the Korea International Trade Association’s International Trade and Commerce Research Center, said. “Unless there are clear guarantees that workers won’t face such a situation, it will be even more difficult for companies to invest in the US going forward.”
One person who previously traveled to the US on the same short-term visa that landed the joint venture workers in trouble said it’s completely unrealistic for foreign firms like LG Energy to replace skilled South Korean staff with US hires.
Such companies require large pools of talented, home-trained personnel who understand every detail of how a battery plant runs, the person said, asking not to be identified discussing sensitive matters. Once that infrastructure is in place, it then becomes easier for US workers to operate the system, they said.
The person said as a consequence of what has happened over the past few days, they won’t risk a US trip without the proper visa, even under company pressure, given the recent crackdown and their past travel history on ESTA.
South Korean firms are among the biggest investors in America’s automobile and battery supply chains, with firms from LG Energy to SK On Co. building some 22 cell and other manufacturing plants. The projects hinge on moving trained engineers quickly across international borders — something companies say is being undermined by visa bottlenecks and heightened immigration scrutiny.