More than 400 federal, state and local officers carried out a major immigration and worksite-enforcement operation on September 4, 2025, at the HL-GA Battery Company construction site in Ellabell, Georgia, on the Hyundai Motor Group Metaplant America campus. Federal authorities ultimately said 475 people were detained in what Homeland Security Investigations described as the largest single-site enforcement operation in the agency's history.
The operation did not target Hyundai's operating electric-vehicle assembly plant itself. It centered on the adjacent lithium-ion battery factory then under construction by HL-GA Battery Company, a joint venture involving Hyundai Motor Group and LG Energy Solution. Hyundai said none of the people detained were direct Hyundai employees.
According to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Georgia, agents executed a federal search warrant as part of an investigation into alleged unlawful employment practices and possible violations of federal immigration law. The government said more than 475 people were identified as working without authorization. The investigation remained ongoing, and the government's allegations did not by themselves establish criminal liability by any individual or company.
What Federal Agents Were Investigating
Federal officials called the investigation "Operation Low Voltage." The search warrant covered the HL-GA Battery Company property on the roughly 2,900-acre Hyundai Metaplant campus and authorized investigators to seek records and other evidence related to alleged unlawful employment.
Steven Schrank, the special agent in charge of Homeland Security Investigations in Georgia and Alabama at the time, said the investigation had been underway for months and had incorporated information from former workers and community members. He said the detained workers had a range of immigration circumstances rather than a single status: some were accused of entering the United States unlawfully, others of overstaying authorized stays, and others of working despite entering under categories that did not authorize the work authorities said they were performing.
That distinction is important. Nationality alone does not determine whether someone is authorized to work in the United States, and the large number of South Korean nationals detained did not mean all were accused of the same immigration violation.
Hundreds of South Korean Nationals Detained
U.S. officials initially said a majority of the 475 detainees were South Korean. South Korea later confirmed that 317 of its nationals had been detained. The case quickly became a consular and diplomatic issue because many of the workers were connected to Korean companies and contractors involved in installing or commissioning equipment for the new battery facility.
The South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs dispatched a rapid-response team to Georgia to assist detained nationals and coordinate with U.S. authorities. Seoul said its immediate priorities were consular access, the welfare of the detainees and arrangements for their return.
LG Energy Solution said dozens of its own employees and substantially more personnel working for contractors were among those detained. The company suspended most U.S. business travel while reviewing the situation. Hyundai said the detained workers were not direct employees of Hyundai Motor Company.
The Visa Dispute Behind the Case
The raid exposed a broader dispute over how South Korean companies bring specialized technicians to U.S. manufacturing projects. Some workers had entered under the Visa Waiver Program or short-term business classifications. U.S. authorities maintained that certain detainees were performing work that their immigration status did not authorize.
South Korean companies and officials, meanwhile, argued that the existing U.S. visa system did not provide enough practical options for the large numbers of specialized technicians needed temporarily to install, test and commission advanced industrial equipment. That disagreement became a subject of direct talks between Seoul and Washington after the raid.
The distinction also matters legally: entering the United States lawfully does not necessarily authorize employment, and the permitted activities under a business visa or visa-waiver admission can be narrower than the activities allowed under a work-authorized immigration classification.
South Korea Negotiates the Workers' Return
In the days after the September 4 operation, South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Hyun traveled to Washington and discussed the case with U.S. officials, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio. The two governments also began talks about longer-term visa arrangements for Korean companies investing in the United States.
On September 11, the South Korean government said 316 of the 317 detained Korean nationals had left the ICE detention facility in Folkston, Georgia, for Atlanta airport. One Korean national chose not to participate in the arranged departure. Fourteen other foreign employees of Korean companies — 10 Chinese nationals, three Japanese nationals and one Indonesian national — were also included on the charter flight.
According to the South Korean Foreign Ministry, the charter flight carrying 330 people departed Atlanta on September 11 and arrived in South Korea on September 12. Korean officials described the departures as coordinated returns following negotiations with U.S. authorities.
Economic Consequences for the Georgia Battery Project
The immediate business impact fell primarily on construction and commissioning of the battery facility rather than Hyundai's already-operating vehicle assembly plant. Work at the battery site was disrupted as companies assessed their staffing and immigration practices.
Hyundai Motor Company CEO José Muñoz later said the battery plant's planned startup would be delayed by at least two to three months because many of the specialists needed to complete the facility had returned to South Korea. He described the affected workers as personnel with technical expertise needed during the construction and equipment-installation phase.
The episode also affected other South Korean industrial projects in the United States. Companies reassessed travel and staffing arrangements for technicians, while officials from both countries discussed whether existing visa categories adequately serve large foreign investments that require temporary teams with specialized knowledge.
Why the Raid Became a Diplomatic Issue
The raid occurred against the backdrop of substantial South Korean investment in U.S. manufacturing, including electric vehicles, batteries, semiconductors and other advanced industries. South Korean officials argued that companies were simultaneously being encouraged to expand U.S. production while facing difficulty obtaining suitable visas for short-term technical personnel.
U.S. officials, by contrast, emphasized that foreign investment does not exempt companies or workers from immigration and employment law. The Justice Department said the purpose of Operation Low Voltage included enforcing laws against unauthorized employment and investigating whether employers had improperly hired workers who lacked employment authorization.
The two positions are not mutually exclusive: the United States can enforce employment rules while the governments separately negotiate whether legal visa pathways should be changed or clarified for future projects. Following the raid, Seoul and Washington agreed to continue discussions on visa-related problems affecting Korean businesses.
What the Operation Did — and Did Not — Establish
The September 4 operation established that federal authorities had obtained a judicially authorized search warrant and detained hundreds of workers while investigating alleged unauthorized employment. It did not, by itself, prove criminal wrongdoing by every worker, contractor, Hyundai, LG Energy Solution or the HL-GA joint venture.
Immigration detention is also distinct from a criminal conviction. Individual workers could have different immigration histories, visa classifications and legal defenses, and those circumstances must be assessed separately rather than inferred from the fact that they were detained during the same operation.
The raid's longer-term significance therefore extends beyond the number of detentions. It became a test of how U.S. immigration enforcement intersects with foreign industrial investment, specialized technical labor and the visa system used by companies building complex manufacturing facilities in the United States.
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