A total of 316 South Korean and 14 foreign workers who were detained in a Sept. 4 US immigration crackdown landed in Incheon International Airport at 3:30 p.m., Friday, returning home eight days after being taken into custody.
The workers were released from a detention center in Folkston, Georgia, early Thursday, local tim, a week after their arrest in a US Immigration and Customs Enforcement raid at an electric vehicle battery plant construction site run by a Hyundai Motor-LG Energy Solution joint venture in Bryan County, Georgia.
The release came a day later than initially planned as US President Donald Trump encouraged them to stay in the US and train American workers.
They arrived on a Korean Air flight departed Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport at 11:38 a.m., Thursday.
According to South Korea’s Foreign Ministry, all Korean workers were released from detention except one, who lives in the US with family and chose to pursue legal action. The individual is reportedly seeking permanent residency, with family members who are all green card holders.
Others decided to return to Korea in the form of “voluntary departure” rather than deportation. The South Korean government asked that the detained workers not face disadvantages if they seek to reenter the US, a request Washington accepted, according to local media reports.
Most of the detained Korean workers were said to have been on B-1 temporary visitor visas or entered the US through a visa waiver program.
Washington has pledged that the South Korean workers detained in an immigration raid last week will face no penalties if they seek to reenter the US, Seoul’s Foreign Ministry said Thursday.
Seoul and Washington also agreed to launch a joint working group on visa issues to avert a repeat of mass detention.
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