‘Bring your very smart people legally’: Trump to foreign companies in US after Hyundai plant raid; South Korea to bring home 300 detained workers

Following a raid at a Hyundai Motor manufacturing facility in the U.S. state of Georgia on Thursday (September 4, 2025), US President Donald Trump on Sunday (September 7, 2025) local time asked foreign companies operating in America to “respect the nation's immigration laws.” In a post on social media platform Truth Social, he said that foreign companies should bring smart people legally and also hire and train American workers.

"Following the Immigration Enforcement Operation on the Hyundai Battery Plant in Georgia, I am hereby calling on all Foreign Companies investing in the United States to please respect our Nation's Immigration Laws," Trump wrote on Truth Social.

"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. What we ask in return is that you hire and train American Workers," he added.



The US president’s remarks came after immigration officials arrested 475 workers, most of them South Korean citizens, at the construction site of an electric vehicle battery plant in Georgia on Thursday (September 4, 2025). This was the latest in a long line of workplace raids conducted as part of the Trump administration’s mass deportation agenda.

South Korea to bring home 300 workers detained in Hyundai raid

Meanwhile, the South Korean government announced on Sunday that more than 300 South Korean workers detained following a massive immigration raid at a Hyundai plant in Georgia will be released and brought home, according to news agency AP.

Kang Hoon-sik, chief of staff for President Lee Jae Myung, said that South Korea and the US had finalized negotiations on the workers' release. He said South Korea plans to send a charter plane to bring the workers home as soon as remaining administrative steps are completed. Foreign Minister Cho Hyun is to leave for the US on Monday (September 8, 2025) for talks related to the workers' releases, South Korean media reported.

US immigration authorities said on Friday (September 5, 2025) that they detained 475 people, most of them South Korean nationals, when hundreds of federal agents raided Hyundai's sprawling manufacturing site in Georgia where the Korean automaker makes electric vehicles. Agents focused on a plant that is still under construction at which Hyundai has partnered with LG Energy Solution to produce batteries that power EVs, AP reported.

Trump made the post shortly after telling reporters he would look at what happened but that the incident had not harmed his relationship with South Korea. He also floated the idea that he would look at the possibility of some foreign manufacturing experts being allowed into the country to help train American workers.

The South Korean government has expressed regret about the arrests and the release of the footage showing the operation involving armored vehicles detaining the workers who were shackled and taken in.