It was a win for President Donald Trump, Louisiana and Hyundai.
In March, the South Korean automaker announced plans to invest $21 billion — which was eventually bumped up to $26 billion — in the United States over the next four years.
Trump got validation for his heavy tariff hand from the deal; Louisiana would get a new, nearly $6 billion steel mill; and Hyundai seemingly won favor with the “America First” administration.
Then, the Georgia raid happened.
More than 300 South Korean workers left the U.S. last month after being arrested and handcuffed following an immigration raid at a battery factory. The Trump Administration said the workers were here illegally. A stunned South Korean government said it’s investigating whether its citizens’ human rights were violated during the raid. Analysts pointed out the seeming conflict between Trump's immigration and manufacturing goals, with Hyundai at the center, as the repercussions of the raid play out.
Hyundai recently said construction at the Georgia plant is being delayed due to labor shortages, and work on at least 22 other South Korean projects in the U.S. has nearly all halted, according to the Korean Economic Daily.
Hyundai is holding firm to its U.S. plans, though. A spokesperson for the company told the Gulf States Newsroom in an email that its “commitment remains unchanged” and the company’s investment is “centered on creating thousands of high-quality American jobs.” Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry has also stood behind Hyundai, saying he doesn’t expect “anyone illegally” to be working on the project.
Despite these statements, some protest groups argue that the raid shows these aren’t American jobs being created.
“I think the whole project needs to be on hold until you equip these people here to even work [there],” said Ashley Gaignard, president of Rural Roots Louisiana, an advocacy group in Ascension Parish where Hyundai plans to build the new steel mill.
Gaignard first opposed the plant over environmental concerns, but after that raid, she joined the Louisiana Bucket Brigade in a new criticism. They called on Gov. Landry to pull back state subsidies for the plant, claiming that those jobs won’t go to Louisiana residents.
But the South Koreans arrested in Georgia were there to help build the battery plant, not necessarily assigned to permanent jobs once the plant opens.
“Believe me, these people would rather be in South Korea than here,” said A.J. Jacobs, director of Graduate Studies at East Carolina University’s Community and Regional Planning program. He also wrote two volumes on the history of the Korean auto industry. “Their families are not coming with them.”
Ascension Parish’s communications office said these plants are, in fact, hiring local workers. And it pointed to workforce development happening at Louisiana tech colleges and the River Parishes Community College, which are working together to create a new training center to prep local talent to work at the steel plant.
Jacobs also doesn’t think the raid will be enough to cause Hyundai to rethink its manufacturing plans in the U.S. They make way too much money in the states for that.
“Outside of South Korea, it’s the biggest market that they have by far,” Jacobs said. “Why would you purposefully or accidentally do anything to jeopardize that?”
This story was produced by the Gulf States Newsroom, a collaboration between Mississippi Public Broadcasting, WBHM in Alabama, WWNO and WRKF in Louisiana and NPR.
