Activists hold signs that reads “No one is illegal!” in front of the US embassy in Seoul, South Korea, Tuesday 9 September 2025;
Credit: Reuters/Kim Hong-Ji
SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korea will send a chartered plane to Atlanta as early as Wednesday 10 September, to bring back workers detained during a huge immigration raid last week on a car battery plant in the US state of Georgia, a Korean Air spokesperson said on Tuesday 9 September 2025.
A Korean Air Boeing 747-8i plane with 368 seats will fly from South Korea's Incheon to Atlanta, according to the spokesperson.
During the US immigration raid, about 300 South Koreans were among 475 people arrested at the site of a $4.3 billion (€3.66 billion) project by Hyundai Motor and LG Energy Solution to build batteries for electric cars.
South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Hyun is traveling to Washington to negotiate on issues such as seeking assurances that the detained Koreans will be allowed re-entry to the United States.
South Korean officials had kicked off the process of bringing the detained workers back home, a senior diplomatic official told reporters in Georgia after meeting with the workers in custody.
The raid was the largest single-site enforcement operation in the history of the Department of Homeland Security's investigative operations and sent shockwaves through South Korea, a US ally that has been trying to finalise a trade deal agreed with Washington in July 2025.
