Nearly 500 workers were taken in a raid at Hyundai’s battery plant. In a quiet Georgia town, the silence is deafening

https://www.cnn.com/2025/09/08/us/georgia-hyundai-ice-raid-community

34 comments

  1. This is like watching a blind, drunk caveman, trying to land a plane.

  2. Would the raid have even happened if it wasn’t green jobs?

  3. That town just died. Hyundai is going to slowly close up operations.

  4. I don’t think Trump could do a better job at stifling manufacturing in the US.

    Between the randomness of the constantly changing unpredictable tariff situation, and the aggressive but inconsistent enforcement like this, This is going to destroy any sort of desire for international businesses to grow their manufacturing in the United States.

    You couldn’t write a better plan to destroy American manufacturing than the current one the Trump administration is pursuing.

  5. It is absolutely absurd and obscene that these masked goons show up with rifles out and body armor to go after people working 9-5 manufacturing jobs in factories. They’re equipped to go into combat with near-peer adversaries, when all they’re doing is correcting errors on paperwork.

  6. The magas are certainly leaving no stone unturned in their war on the Yank economy. This is just unbelievable. The Koreans must have crapped their pants when the masked thugs leapt out of the armoured cars.

  7. Stupendous job, Comrade Krasnov!

    Trump is in the White House to destroy the United States from the inside, and it’s working.

  8. Even assuming the workers were on an incorrect visa or overstayed, what a stupid enforcement decision by Trump’s administration. Raiding, shackling, etc.! They could have been confronted with non-compliance and instead asked to normalize their visas (e.g. extend or convert to work visas).

    I read that as a result of this raid, Hyundai instructed all its staff (and contractors?) to return home. Without them and similar folk at other companies, it will be difficult for foreign manufacturers to transfer knowledge and establish functional US facilities. What will induce them to return?

    If Republican politicians, especially those affected by these bad policies (e.g. Georgia politicians), were patriotic, they’d impede or even impeach Trump (e.g. release the Epstein files) to convince him to change course but they’ll instead mumble something about Hyundai being an important partner and do nothing.

  9. So what’s the plan here? Destroy America and then run away to Russia after? Does dude not realize Putin will just immediately have him killed the instant he is no longer useful?

  10. Hyundai has said this will lead to a years long delay in battery production which will, in turn, leads to a slow down of production at their other Georgia plant. Those slow downs will lead to lay offs.

    Then we will hear the outrage.

  11. It is going to take decades to rebuild trust in the international business community after whatever this is ends, assuming it does. I think it is still far from ending. This has Howard Lutnic and Steven Miller written all over it.

  12. I’m sure it was a coincidence that it was an EV plant and not any of Hyundais gas vehicle plants in the USA

  13. People assume that the wealthy will never let the entire nation which gives them power to collapse by doing insanely stupid shit that hurts the nation. Look up the French revolution. The richest 5% were basically immune from all taxes, the entire economy was owned by them and when you got rich enough you paid a fee, were enobled and you didn’t have to pay tax anymore.

    The government basically couldn’t operate and were bankrupt. The government and nobility spent all their time fucking around and it wasn’t until it was all over that they remotely tried to do anything. They ended up getting their heads chopped off.

  14. I helped get this battery plant approved on the design side. Georgia’s government fast tracked it, so I would imagine Georgia state politicians will be rather pissed about the biggest project in the state getting this type of treatment.

    This makes me think they arrested a bunch of south Koreans as well that are 100% overseeing their huge investment in the United States.

    They won’t be in most government databases as many of them have not filed taxes yet and filing taxes is how most of the databases get updated with your information.

    Basically you don’t exist in the government online databases until you have filed your taxes, until then you have to jump through a lot of hoops to verify your identity.

    I know this because I was in talks with government officials getting south korean project managers identifies verified for this project and they told me this info.

    So basically they arrest a shit ton of immigrants on valid work visas and claim they are not in the government database and it’s because the databases are not updated until the person files their taxes.

    Also south koreans working here go by aliases as often times it’s hard for English speakers to say and remember their Korean names.

  15. trump was the worst possible choice for president, and he is proving it.

  16. This is one of the best articles that I have read on the state of American government lately. Unlike some commentators, the writers of this piece aren’t hysterically shouting that America is becoming a fascist state. Instead they carefully describe the facts of the raid and convey the competing sentiments of fear and racial resentment in the affected town. What remains is an unavoidable comparison to the 1930’s era of crackdowns and roundups in Germany, especially on the competing feelings of townsfolk apathy and contrition. I think prescient Americans are starting to recall Niemöller’s statement that, “…then they came for me.”

  17. Are these raids a favor to Elon or some car manufacturing CEO?

  18. Crazy that one lunatic can make a single phone call to DHS leading to this chaos

  19. What the fuck are they talking about with ‘the silence’? There were countless protests after this, my city ever marched on to the government buildings and shouted our lungs out for hours.

    These stupid news outlets need to do better.

  20. > Rentz said his grocery store quickly became a flashpoint, with some locals resenting how it catered to the new wave of workers. Some residents, he said, would even walk in, hurl insults and storm out.

    > “They hate this store,” he said of some residents who walk in to see shelves stocked with Asian food items displayed near American food products.

    What is this mindset? Nothing at the supermarket is more exciting than when there is some new kind of food available to try. How can people be mad at this?

  22. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that the largest ICE bust yet is a competitor to Tesla.

  23. I live in GA, and one of Gov. Kemp’s proudest achievements is bringing a great deal of foreign investment and factories to our state. Just a few miles from my hometown, an enormous battery facility is nearing completion that is the largest construction project I’ve ever seen. You can now expect that ALL to come to a screeching halt. Could you image Kemp even getting meetings with international investors after this debacle? He’ll be laughed out of the room.

    Turns out that xenophobia and racism can be quite expensive.

  24. I have a friend who lives nearby, Brooklet, and the amount of construction for housing/infastructure for this plant is crazy. If they lose this plant and it’s employees, it will be more far reaching than any of the residents can imagine. But unfortunately, outside of Statesboro where the college is, it is incredibly racist and they seem to be glad to get rid of “illegals” even if they are here legally.

  25. Local Union leader complained about non union workers next thing plant gets raided not a lot of deep thought went into the raid

  26. Putin is loving every second, “I can destroy America simply by using their racism against them”. 

  27. Tourism numbers are also terrible, visits to the US are down almost 20%

    Canadian and Japanese tourists especially are avoiding America and are travelling to Europe where the number of visitors has increased by 5% across the continent 

    The over-tourism protests in Spain are are a direct result of these increases, we can expect more protests around the world as fewer tourists visit America 

  28. Why does P2025 want to destroy manufacturing in the US?

  29. bye bye 8500 jobs that Ellabell would have had by around 2030. Enjoy golf course and canoeing “economy” lmao!
    I hope they scrap the site and open American company data center, that take up just as much foot print but employ like 20 people. FAFO time.

  30. Bringing back manufacturing to the US by… scaring the hell out of the companies who would establish plants here. Good job!

  31. The worst part about living in a fascist regime is the silence of all the people who believe it doesn’t concern them.

  32. I live in North Georgia directly by the sister plant near Rome. If you don’t think all those Korean nationals living near Rome and Cartersville aren’t scheduling flight home right now, you are an idiot. That plant isn’t as far along as the one near Savannah and this fiasco will definitely chill the initiative to compete it.

  33. I wonder how many of the rural whites know this will keep them poor.

  34. I think people should know that the plant is in Pooler, Georgia, a part of Chatham County with Savannah, GA. Chatham county has long been a pocket of Blue in Georgia.

    Edit: Technically the plant is in Ellabell, which is in Bryan County, but Ellabell is unincorporated and the nearest town, which has been transformed by the addition of the plant, is Pooler.

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