Imperial Tyranny, Korean Humiliation
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The article discusses the detention and treatment of Korean workers by ICE, sparking outrage and debate on immigration policies and human rights; the discussion revolves around the workers' visa status, the role of corporate responsibility, and the broader implications of ICE's actions.
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Sep 15, 2025 at 5:27 PM EDT
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I’m tired of seeing stories with no real facts and similarly tired of comment sections discussing the issue without them either.
What actually happened here?
The number of human beings in the West who can discern the difference and use wisdom and intelligence appears to be declining.
Everything is now either black or white.
What does that tell you about Anglo Western Culture?
Some call it hypocrisy - and normally the same people are capable of displaying hypocrisy in other arguments too.
What?
You simply say you're traveling on business, you absolutely do not lie and say you're a tourist.
This case is additionally complicated as some of the construction work was being done by Latino workers who (like many construction workers) may not have had valid immigration paperwork.
In particular, worker training and equipment installation/setup. This seems to be exactly the case there.
https://travel.state.gov/content/dam/visas/BusinessVisa%20Pu...
I don't think this greatly changes your general point. It's likely that many of those detained were in fact lawfully present.
But what about assembling and installing the battery presses? Or maybe setting up the electrical connections for them?
It is a genuinely ambiguous area, and I won't be surprised if Korean companies tried to push it a bit too far. This still doesn't excuse the ICE behavior a bit. They could have just revoked the visas and asked employees to leave.
It's also quite clear that the Korean companies were not flying engineers here to save on wages.
The USA calls it B-1.
https://www.uscis.gov/working-in-the-united-states/temporary...
(I have no comment on the relevance of this to the article.)
If they ignore you like 3 times, maybe escort them to a flight.
In this case the issue seem to be a debate around specifically what types of work these people were permitted to perform on their visas, with the union arguing, in their self-interest, that the work they were doing did not qualify.
They literally don't believe you when you explain that this is false of the law in general, and especially false of immigration law, which is deliberately designed to have tons of ambiguity and discretion in it, to enable selective enforcement and keep guest workers afraid and exploitable in their ambiguous status.
This seems less likely, because most places have some form of 'business' visa that's about as easy to get as a personal travel visa (the US's one is under the visa waiver program where available, say). The catch is that the definition of 'business' tends to be restrictive and unclear.
I've never done this, despite having worked abroad on a few occasions. When my visa ran out and I had to apply out of the country, I went home and applied and a few months later went back.
If teenage me had been dragged aside and asked to prove I'm legal to work I have nothing. Where am I staying? Well I have a hotel reservation. OK, and how are you paying? Well here's a photocopy of my English boss' Amex that'll work right?
Everything was fine of course, as far as I know it was entirely legal, I was the foreign employee of a huge US firm, temporarily in the country to train people, by the time I left I had my own Amex and the hotel was paid with that, I was waved through both borders, no problem. But I had no proof of any sort, if you had wanted to detain me and insist you need documentation I had none. Maybe my bosses could have cleared it up? I just assumed it would be fine, and it was.
In 2025 I wouldn't recommend travelling to the US. A friend went, rich white guy with his very normal family, no doubt nothing seemed weird for them but if he'd asked me whether it's a good idea I'd say "No".
The most egregious violation was that they were using Korean contractors for construction and there is no visa for that.
Also if you are going on a business trip, your company organises your visa for you. You cant really refuse, it's part of your job. So I feel quite sorry for these workers becuase they've been caught in the crossfire.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/sep/10/hyundai-fact...
I’ve seen a dozen articles and discussions around this topic - none of which provide any facts, just vitriol such as yours. I genuinely want to hear the actual truth of the story. I’ve never heard of any plate watering stories or anything else. I’m not here making a case. I’m asking for facts I may have missed, facts that TFA lacks.
If the former, there's probably not much information to go on.
But what people are reacting to is the insane treatment of people.
If that's what you are looking for information about, how high standards of proof do you require?
A similar activity that technically flouts the rules is responding to your work email while on a business trip. Or for software people, reviewing PRs on GitHub. Neither of those activities are business meetings, but both are generally tolerated.
Chesterton's fence is kind of important! The overall problem is that the world has become globalized but immigration policy just hasn't kept up.
None of this is to defend in any way the appalling conditions the workers were subjected to. But also, note that these conditions are not out of the ordinary. People get stuck in immigration detention for years.
B-1/B-2 does allow some work. Specifically setting up complex equipment and also training workers. Here's the CBP manual: https://www.cbp.gov/sites/default/files/documents/B-1%20perm...
> If the contract of sale specifically requires the seller to provide these services or training, and you possess specialized knowledge essential to the seller's contractual obligation to perform the services or training it may be permissible for you to perform these services. In addition, the machinery or equipment must have been manufactured at a location outside of the United States and you may not receive compensation from a U.S. source.
Now the catch is that people on B1/B2 visas have NO recourse if _any_ border official decides that they violate the visa rules. And the rules themselves are really unclear.
I have seen acknowledgements in the Korean press that there may have been some irregularity on the corporate end due to the administrative complexities involved. Given that SK is quite bureaucratic itself, that seems to me like a criticism they would be receptive towards. But the security measures like shackling all detainees and the bad detention conditions are landing with the public there (according to friends of mine as well as this editorial article) as an insult to Korean dignity which is really intolerable, eg leading respectable political figures there to muse openly about whether the time has come for SK to have an independent nuclear deterrent.
I think US policymakers often fail to realize that the US is an outlier among developed countries for the severity and indignity of its law enforcement practices. Most countries grant criminal defendants far more privacy pending conviction, in contrast to the publication of mugshots and home addresses that obtain in many US jurisdictions, and are far less inclined toward the use of physical restraints or harsh detention environments. South Korea in particular associates systematically harsh conditions with the autocratic regime of North Korea so they've been deeply startled to see such conditions inflicted upon their nationals by their main ally.
That said, "willful action on the part of the individuals" is likely not the case - this is a large Korean conglomerate, all of them will have been doing what the company told them to do. This is part of why it's such a big deal to Koreans: workers who were doing what they were supposed to do correctly from a social perspective were treated like criminals, which is a major issue culturally.
And the company will probably have understood that the USA understood that for cases where no proper route, or only ambiguous routes, existed, everyone else will be part of cooperatively addressing ambiguity advantageously.
This woman called ICE and they shackled these people up like it was the 1800s again.
Major stories (NYT) have covered at least one person wrongly detained:
> Almost 500 people were detained during a raid of a Georgia battery plant owned by two South Korean manufacturers last week, the largest immigration enforcement operation at one location in the history of the Department of Homeland Security.
> But in at least one instance, officials admitted a worker was employed legally and forced him to leave the country anyway, according to documents reviewed by The New York Times.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/12/business/economy/hyundai-...
What was the point of making this big spectacle of it
https://www.ft.com/content/c677b9aa-2e89-4feb-a56f-f3c8452b3...
[1] https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/us-visas/tourism-...
> "With his hands and waist bound together, he had to lower his head and lap at the water..."
https://www.hani.co.kr/arti/society/society_general/1218653.... ("Not even a scrap of cloth in the toilet, not even a protest… What have we done wrong? / Human rights violations reported by detained workers")
Or possibly this adjacent one,
https://www.hani.co.kr/arti/society/society_general/1218738.... ("Spider carcass found in drinking water at Korean detention facility… Guard mocks inmate: ‘You'll be Spider-Man, won't you?’"
I'm trying to read that in a charitable way: you're pointing out that, to a person who is fine with being cruel to laborers, they might not be comfortable with the cruelty and humiliation if it impacts people they might find deserving of respect and decency, yeah?
we also expect white collar workers to be treated differently than blue collar workers. even if we agree that this particular treatment is unacceptable for both.
How should we treat someone (a Korean in this particular case) who doesn't wear his collar ? "Sorry i struck you, but you didn't wear your white collar. Better luck next time". What if a blue collar worker wears a white collar ? Is he excepted from humiliation ?
Treating people like animals makes you an animal.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue-collar_worker
you would not treat animals like that either, btw.
It's also wrong, but not just that, it's wrong and stupid when you do the same thing to employees of a multi-national corporation building a factory that was going to be a major economic boost to your town.
The Koreans are not responsible for the cruelty US immigration imposes on its victims- it’s not their country or fight.
It’s US internal affairs and laws, Korea is involved only in looking out for its own citizens.
The Hyundai workers were still working for and being paid Hyundai - so they didn’t “need” to skirt US immigration law.
ICE sweeps mostly pick up undocumented laborers in the fields and factories. The people have nothing to lose by trying to run away, as they as just going to be deported anyway. So it stands to reason they would be restrained upon arrest. Documented workers on the other hand have a great deal to lose by further aggravating their situation. It is extremely unlikely that a documented worker would try to run away. However, I expect that ICE has to use the same procedures on all demographic groups to avoid charges racial discrimination.
There is simply no visa that allows skilled labor to come to the US, work a temporary job for a multinational that's paying them in their home country, and leave.
The closest thing apparently is the "B-1 in lieu of H-1B"[1] and guess what? Another commenter posted this FT article that accuses them of abusing this B-1 visa [2].
Traveling for work is a huge pain in the ass, doubly so for this sort of temporary work assignment, and triply so if it's to the USA.
I've always been told to use a tourist or family reunification visa. For example, if China cracked down on this, they could easily put 10,000+ Americans in jail for a similar "visa abuse". They obviously would not bite the hand of foreign direct investment like this though.
I think it's informative to interpret the law - especially in the age of Congressional gridlock - as 300 years of terrible legacy code papered over the Herculean efforts of ops teams (the government bureaucracy). When that ops team starts arbitrarily treating the oceans of gray zones to their whims, to reward friends and punish enemies, you start the long trek to serfdom...
[1] https://www.wsmimmigration.com/us-immigration/temporary-work...
[2] https://www.ft.com/content/c677b9aa-2e89-4feb-a56f-f3c8452b3...
what about the L-1 transfer visa ?
> and leave.
You don’t even need a visa to leave
> and guess what? Another commenter posted this FT article that accuses them of abusing this B-1 visa
accusations that should be investigated - but in the last news I read it sounded like they would be allowed to stay somehow
> You don’t even need a visa to leave
Either unable to critically read or extraordinarily pedantic. Classic HN.
Beat up people first. Check later. Often a force without badges, badges without numbers, without ID, without faces and without warrants.
It's an imperial private army.
Don't expect better. If the courts turn their backs, expect more cruelty, more disdain for law and procedures, more groups swept up, until ...
We all know who they're working for now.
I'm not sure that's true. The B-1 forbids most work, including "construction", but there's a special set of rules for installing equipment sold by your foreign employer:
https://travel.state.gov/content/dam/visas/BusinessVisa%20Pu...
Many of those detained were employees of Hyundai's equipment vendors. A lawyer for some of those employees is alleging they were in fact compliant for that reason:
https://www.reuters.com/business/retail-consumer/lawyer-says...
If the DHS has evidence to the contrary, then it's had a week to disclose that and save some face. That they haven't may imply a significant fraction of those detained in these harsh conditions were in fact lawfully present.
They can just go in front of Congress and lie. Complete bold-faced lies.
There's no legal penalty for lying, the most Congress can do is frown upon them using the allowed forms of language.
They have no shame because they know they'll be protected from all sides.
But the way that this was handled was completely out of hand, treating the employees (who have the paperwork handled by the company anyway) as common criminals, and to a country that's an ally (and one that you're trying to get to invest in your country), is completely ludicrous in a developed country, the type of action you might expect in the DRC or Myanmar.
And the fact that ICE said it took "months of preparation and coordination", means that they knew these people didn't have the proper visas and instead of warning the company to take its people home and/or come into compliance, they planned a high-profile military-style raid.
I'm not Korean but I can easily see how this would make Korean companies and their employees want nothing to do with the US.
The people who were detained here are just like the average hacker news user - educated professionals traveling for business. Please imagine what it would be like to travel - in good faith - to Germany, Japan, or South Korea for work only to be detained, chained like cattle in poor conditions, and paraded in front of television cameras like a prize. How would you feel about continuing to work with that country?
Here is the call to action - if these actions by the administration upset you, call your senators and representatives and demand that the leaders of ICE and the DHS be held accountable for this raid and the conditions of these detention centers. We are perfectly capable of enforcing our laws without abusing people.
Neat and tidy summary of what MAGA is.
If someone is firing a machine gun indiscriminately in all directions, it's naive to think you can survive by asking them to just please not point it towards you.