8th largest<\/a> trading partner, with the two countries exchanging $242.5 billion in goods and services last year.<\/p>\n\u201cIf the U.S. genuinely wants to attract investment from South Korean companies, things like this cannot happen,\u201d Oh said.<\/p>\n
In a statement released Friday, the U.S. attorney\u2019s office in the Southern District of Georgia said the operation \u2014 which was the largest single-site raid in the Department of Homeland Security\u2019s history \u2014 was part of a nationwide initiative, known as Operation Take Back America, to \u201crepel the invasion of illegal immigration.\u201d<\/p>\n
ICE has said that those arrested were found to be working illegally, many on \u201cshort-term or recreational visas,\u201d which do not allow visitors to work.<\/p>\n
As of 2022, around 110,000 unauthorized South Korean immigrants were living in the U.S., representing 1% of the total, according to data compiled by the Pew Research Center.<\/p>\n
Even if there is a swift release of the workers, experts in South Korea said this heavy-handed action could impact how the Asian nation sees its trade relationship with the U.S.<\/p>\n
Industry experts say that the crackdown could lead to logistical challenges for both ongoing and future efforts by South Korean companies in the U.S.<\/p>\n
South Korea recently announced a $150-billion project to help revive a declining American shipbuilding industry. In addition, nearly 10 other battery plant projects are underway across the U.S.<\/p>\n
For years, companies here have dispatched their own technical specialists to oversee the construction of U.S. factories using nonwork travel permits such as ESTA (Electronic System for Travel Authorization), a visa waiver that allows tourists to stay in the country for up to 90 days.<\/p>\n
Though technically the visas do not allow holders to work, \u201cit was tolerated for a long time by U.S. authorities,\u201d said Hwang In-song, an industrial policy expert at the Korea Electronics Technology Institute, a government think tank.<\/p>\n
South Korean companies have long complained that the visas legally required for their dispatched workers are too time-consuming and challenging to obtain.<\/p>\n
For example, the H-1B visa, which allows people to work, is awarded through a lottery held once a year. And getting one has gotten increasingly difficult under Trump, who has limited its eligibility under the banner of \u201cBuy American, Hire American.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSouth Korean companies are reluctant to go that route because it takes at least 8 months of lead time before you can begin working on an H-1B, and there is no guarantee you will get it,\u201d said Chun Jong-joon, a Korean American immigration lawyer based in Washington.<\/p>\n
Hwang said it is nearly impossible to find enough Americans with the skills needed to staff South Korea\u2019s U.S. factories, including for lithium-ion battery manufacturing or shipbuilding.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs of now, there\u2019s no way other than sending experienced South Korean specialists to help,\u201d Hwang said.<\/p>\n
After the release of the detained workers, South Korean officials said that they would pursue improvements to U.S. work permits for South Korean citizens.<\/p>\n
Chile, Australia and Singapore have special work visa programs that allow their citizens to work in specialized roles in the U.S.<\/p>\n
Until then, the arrests at the Georgia battery plant will probably mean months of costly delays, as the joint venture struggles to redeploy workers.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the case of LG Energy Solutions, they will have to think twice before sending their workers to the Georgia plant,\u201d Hwang said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SEOUL\u00a0\u2014\u00a0South Korea says the Trump administration has agreed to release the hundreds of Koreans caught last week in…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":209662,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,3],"tags":[55613,9958,96417,3853,115114,115113,50,5996,1807,10656,15243,115112,115111,67,132,68,23509,17253,1628],"class_list":{"0":"post-209661","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-states","8":"category-us","9":"tag-big-company","10":"tag-country","11":"tag-crackdown","12":"tag-deal","13":"tag-hwang-in-song","14":"tag-manufacturing-operation","15":"tag-news","16":"tag-part","17":"tag-president-trump","18":"tag-release","19":"tag-south-korea","20":"tag-south-korean-government","21":"tag-u-s-official","22":"tag-united-states","23":"tag-unitedstates","24":"tag-us","25":"tag-visa","26":"tag-worker","27":"tag-year"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115167548326010104","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209661","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=209661"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209661\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/209662"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=209661"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=209661"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=209661"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}