MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
An immigration raid at a Hyundai electric vehicle battery plant being built in Georgia resulted in the detention of nearly 500 people. It also highlighted how two goals of President Trump's second term can be in conflict. On the one hand, an increase in deportations. On the other, an increase in domestic manufacturing. WABE's Sam Gringlas joins us now with a look at how all this is playing out. Good morning, Sam.
SAM GRINGLAS, BYLINE: Hey, Michel.
MARTIN: So federal officials say this raid last week was the largest single-site immigration enforcement operation in Homeland Security investigation's history. So what more can you tell us about who was affected and what's happened to them since the raid?
GRINGLAS: Well, early this morning, a Korean air jet landed in Seoul, carrying some 300 South Koreans who had been working at this site. My WABE colleague Emily Wu Pearson spoke to an immigration attorney representing some of the workers. His name is Charles Kuck, and he said they'd been on temporary assignment helping set up the south Georgia battery plant, which is a joint venture of Hyundai and LG Energy Solution.
CHARLES KUCK: What was happening at this plant is the exact same thing that has happened at dozens of other plants around the United States over the last decade.
GRINGLAS: The attorney said these workers had specialized expertise - expertise that would've taken American workers maybe two or three years in South Korea to get. And as of now, construction at that battery plant is paused.
MARTIN: Well, you know, about that, you know, Georgia is one of several states led by Republicans that's seen major investments in manufacturing lately. So how are political leaders there responding to this raid?
GRINGLAS: Top Republicans are in a little bit of an awkward position here. Governor Brian Kemp is really just the latest in a long line of Georgia Republican governors who have nurtured these really deep ties in South Korea. The Hyundai EV plant has been billed as the largest economic development project in state history. South Korean battery and solar panel makers have also invested heavily here. And while Kemp has pledged to make Georgia the electric mobility capital of the world, he has also supported Trump's immigration policies by offering up the Georgia National Guard to help.
And meanwhile, GOP Senate candidates are trying to connect Hyundai to Democratic Senator Jon Ossoff. But, you know, that is tricky when it's really Kemp who has been so closely tied to this project.
MARTIN: Do we have any sense of whether President Trump sees these goals as being in conflict? I mean, on the one hand, as you've said, he wants more products made in the U.S. But in this case, people who could help make that happen are being deported.
GRINGLAS: I mean, he did seem to acknowledge this dilemma when he spoke to reporters about the raid earlier this week.
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PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: We're going to have to train people. And the way you train people is bring people in that know what they're doing and let them stay for a little while and help. So I'm going to look at that. It's a very interesting situation that took place in Georgia.
GRINGLAS: And Trump made these comments really just as the backlash in South Korea was starting to become clear. Now, South Korea's president has said the U.S. ultimately then gave the South Korean detainees a choice between staying and going home, and only one chose to stay. Still, South Korea's president said Thursday that some foreign companies may be hesitant now to invest in the U.S. until the visa system is improved.
MARTIN: That is WABE's Sam Gringlas. Sam, thank you.
GRINGLAS: Thanks, Michel.
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