After 475 arrests at Georgia jobsite, feds vow more raids

Dive Brief:

• In one of the highest profile immigration raids of President Donald Trump’s second term, hundreds of federal agents arrested 475 workers at a construction site in Georgia, the Department of Justice announced Sept. 5. 
• Meanwhile, White House border czar Tom Homan told CNN’s State of the Union Sunday the administration will continue to ramp up raids on U.S. workplaces. 
• The Ellabell, Georgia, facility is the future home of a $4.3 billion electric vehicle battery facility co-owned by Hyundai Motor Group and LG Energy Solution. The vast majority of the arrested workers were South Korean, The New York Times reported.

Dive Insight:

The effort to find and deport immigrants present in the U.S. illegally has been a priority for the Trump administration. Once Immigration and Customs Enforcement was able to mobilize, the jobsite raids began.

It’s no secret construction employs many foreign-born workers, though it’s hard to know how many for certain. Some estimates place the total share of undocumented construction workers at about 23%.

As a result, the industry is feeling the impact of those ICE raids. Immigration enforcement has affected about one in three construction firms, according to a survey released Aug. 28 by the Associated General Contractors of America and the National Center for Construction Education and Research.

And contractors are desperate for labor; roughly nine in ten firms report having openings for craft construction workers. The lack of skilled workforce has been the largest cause of project delays, per the AGC survey.

Hyundai and LG invested $4.3 billion to establish the HL-GA Battery Company plant, with plans to begin production of EV batteries in early 2026, per the project website. Both of the owner firms are based in South Korea.

No Hyundai employees were arrested, the company said in a statement, and 47 LG employees were detained, according to The New York Times. Most of those arrested were employed by subcontractors.

In its statement, Hyundai said it had “zero tolerance” for those who do not follow the law and would expect the same of project partners.

“We are reviewing our processes to ensure that all parties working on our projects maintain the same high standards of legal compliance that we demand of ourselves. This includes thorough vetting of employment practices by contractors and subcontractors,” the statement said.

LG did not respond to Construction Dive’s request for comment by the time of publication.

Negotiations to return workers to South Korea moved quickly, Reuters reported. Three hundred detained workers will be processed, released and returned via a chartered plane, the country’s presidential office said on Sunday. 

The megaproject is one example of an onshoring push to benefit investments by foreign companies on U.S. soil. But Homan promised similar enforcement action would continue. 

“No one hires an illegal alien out of the goodness of their heart,” Homan said on CNN’s State of the Union. “They hire them because they can work them harder, pay them less, undercut the competition that hires U.S. citizen employees. They drive wages down.” 

On Sunday, Trump took to his social media platform, Truth Social, to call on foreign companies to continue to plan projects in the U.S., but to do so within the law.

“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. “What we ask in return is that you hire and train American Workers.”