Posted on 09/06/2025 8:35:51 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
The fertile soil of American manufacturing has attracted billions in foreign investment over the past decade, promising to revive industrial heartlands from Michigan to Georgia. Like any garden, however, this economic renaissance requires careful tending—and sometimes the removal of weeds that threaten to choke out legitimate growth. Here’s the thing about these grand promises of foreign partnership: they sound wonderful until you dig beneath the surface and discover what’s actually growing there.
The Hyundai Motor Group facility in Ellabell, Georgia, stretches across 3,000 acres of what was once sleepy farmland twenty miles outside Savannah. This $4.3 to $7.6 billion joint venture with South Korea’s LG Energy Solutions represents the largest single industrial investment in Georgia’s history, designed to manufacture batteries for electric vehicles and employ over 1,200 Americans. Republican Governor Brian Kemp had hailed it as a crown jewel of economic development, a testament to America’s ability to attract world-class manufacturing back to our shores. I’ll admit, on paper it looked like everything we’ve been asking for.
The sprawling construction site buzzed with activity until Thursday morning, when federal agents arrived with search warrants and a clear message about the difference between legal investment and illegal employment practices. Suddenly, all those rosy economic development photos didn’t tell the whole story.
In the largest single-site operation in Homeland Security Investigations history, federal agents arrested 475 illegal migrants working at the facility. Think about that number for a moment—475 people working illegally at a single site. The raid involved multiple agencies—HSI, ICE, FBI, DEA, ATF, IRS, and Georgia State Patrol—executing what officials described as the culmination of a months-long criminal investigation into unlawful employment practices. When you need that many federal agencies to sort out one construction site, you know something’s seriously wrong.
From Fox News:
We are sending a clear and unequivocal message that those who exploit our workforce, undermine our economy and violate federal laws will be held accountable. This operation underscores our commitment to protecting jobs for Georgians, ensuring a level playing field for businesses that comply with the law, safeguarding the integrity of our economy, and protecting workers from exploitation.
The operation immediately suspended construction at the battery plant, though production at the adjacent EV manufacturing facility continued uninterrupted. Videos posted to social media showed workers in yellow safety vests lined up as federal agents announced they had a search warrant for the entire site and ordered all construction work to cease immediately. You have to wonder: how did 475 illegal workers end up at Georgia’s supposedly premier economic development project?
South Korea’s response was swift and predictably defensive. The foreign ministry expressed “concern and regret” over the raid and dispatched embassy officials to the scene, with spokesperson Lee Jae-woong insisting that “our companies’ economic activities and our people’s rights should not be infringed unfairly in the US legal enforcement process.” The diplomatic tension is particularly notable given South Korea’s recent agreement to $350 billion worth of investments in the United States as part of a trade deal struck just months ago.
But here’s what South Korean officials—and frankly, a lot of American politicians—seem to be missing: this wasn’t about unfairly targeting foreign investment. This was about enforcing the laws that make legitimate investment possible in the first place. When companies cut corners by exploiting illegal labor, they’re not just breaking immigration law. They’re stealing from every American worker who plays by the rules and undercutting every business that follows the law.
Let me be clear about what really happened here. The Trump administration just demonstrated something that should be obvious but apparently isn’t: you can simultaneously welcome foreign investment and demand that it operates within American legal frameworks. In fact, the two goals aren’t just compatible—they’re essential to each other. How are legitimate businesses supposed to compete when their rule-breaking competitors exploit illegal labor for cut-rate wages?
This Georgia operation sends exactly the right signal to companies worldwide: America is open for business, but American law is non-negotiable. The 475 individuals now in ICE custody represent more than immigration violations—they represent 475 jobs that should have gone to legal workers, wages that were artificially suppressed, and a system of exploitation that honest businesses simply cannot compete against.
The real test now is whether South Korea and other foreign investors recognize this enforcement action for what it truly is: not an attack on legitimate investment, but a defense of the level playing field that makes such investment worthwhile in the first place. Because if they don’t get it, there are plenty of other countries that will.
475??? Why do they need so many gardeners?
Hyundai awards the bid to the lowest bidder, contracts the work to them, and then turns a blind eye to the sub-contractor’s labor and other practices and plays dumb about what is going on
What’s HSI?
They were just pulling weeds that Americans won’t pull. ;-))
Hey Georgia, you now have 475 positions available at the Hyundai plant so get going!
Throw the contractor in prison.
“ The 475 individuals now in ICE custody represent more than immigration violations—they represent 475 jobs that should have gone to legal workers, wages that were artificially suppressed, and a system of exploitation that honest businesses simply cannot compete against.”
************************************************
Message to all employers in America that employ one or more illegals…. It would be best (for you) to begin your search for LEGAL RESIDENTS AND CITIZENS to hire and train to replace your illegals which will soon be gone.
When will the people who did the hiring and wrote the paychecks be getting out of prison?
Unfortunately, inasmuch as I'm totally with you in sentiment, what employers are about to discover is how many Americans are virtually untrainable because of public schools.
HSI - Homeland Security Investigations
I’m sure glad I’m not the only one who asks questions...
It will be interesting to learn where they were all housed.
Looks like a huge place so perhaps on the premises? Outside Savannah is getting pretty close to touristy spots which would mean $$$$$..was the pay that good?
Agreed. It'd be interesting to see how many illegal immigrant workers that Hyundai and LG sent over, but didn't know, wink-wink, that those workers were illegal when the contractors "verified" them for work.
Unfortunately, inasmuch as I’m totally with you in sentiment, what employers are about to discover is how many Americans are virtually untrainable because of public schools.
—
But a illegal from a third world country with little or no schooling is trainable?
Just asking for a friend.
In some respects, yes. Our kids are raised in an emotional conditioning system designed to make them entitled and resentful.
An illiterate illegal that speaks no English to boot.
How many more mass-illegal alien worker factories are there?
Shut them all down and deport those aliens, arrest the factory owners managers and board members. They know exactly what is going on. They have to. The laws are breached by design.
Seize the factories and sell them to a bidder who will operate them legally.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.