Korea's Major Us Investment Projects Halted
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South Korean companies are halting major US investment projects due to regulatory hurdles and visa issues, sparking concerns about the impact on US-Korea trade relations and the effectiveness of US policies aimed at attracting foreign investment.
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"Korean workers are being treated like criminals for building factories that Washington itself lobbied for. If this continues, investment in the US could be reconsidered."
"could be reconsidered"
Also keep in mind South Korea is dependent on the US for military protection.
As the influence of America wanes, it’s a perfect opportunity for China.
And as we saw in the Pakistan - India conflict, their weapons work.
2. That situation has never stopped weird alliances before.
America is dependent on Japanese and South Korean shipyards in the event of a war of attrition in the Pacific.
And between NATO and Qatar, I think it’s fair to say that U.S. security guarantees aren’t currently worth much.
As I mentioned multiple times before, this is a callous disregard of US immigration and labor laws.
VW Group has built battery factories in the South as well, and Germany has VWP priviliges as well, but they never abused the VWP or B1/2 program. Same with Japan's Panasonic
Heck, Daimler has built a similar sized gigafactory in MS without resorting to similar shenanigans to Hyundai or LG [2]
This plant that Hyundai-LG has been building has seen multiple, persistent OSHA violations [0] at a rate that is severely higher than comparable projects in the US [1].
If the news was flipped and we saw a report that Tesla is building a gigafactory in Korea and bringing in American construction workers without filing for formal work visas in Korea, that would be unacceptable. This is very much the same thing.
If this is acceptable, then why don't we completely disregard H1B regulations when hiring in the tech industry?
Can someone give me a reason why we should allow Korea a special exemption on construction labor and not the rest of the EU, Japan, Taiwan, and other allies?
[0] - https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/sep/12/immigration-...
[1] - https://www.ajc.com/news/2025/06/construction-deaths-injurie...
[2] - https://www.daimlertruck.com/en/newsroom/pressrelease/accele...
Even in the Biden admin we pushed back on Taiwanese companies like TSMC attempting something similar, as well as Hyundai after they were discovered using undocumented child labor to build one of their EV factories.
This exact raid would have happened even if Harris was in the White House right now.
> I thought the constructive goal was to restore US industrial capacity and manufacturing jobs
And deciding to almost exclusively use temporary Korean labor without the correct insurance and workman's comp contributions in order to set cement and lay pipe is adding American jobs?
European, Japanese, and Taiwanese projects of similar scope haven't done similar shenanigans.
> We understand bending of the rules to build things...
That'll hold up in court when an employee is crushed by falling steel while building a battery plant, like what happened at this Hyundai plant right before the raid (which the Guardian reports seems to have been done by OSHA inspectors annoyed at Hyundai's relative impunity) [0]
> I thought the constructive goal was to restore US industrial capacity and manufacturing jobs
"The children yearn for the mines"
[0] - https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/sep/12/immigration-...
Media reporting on this has been kinda slipshod. Is that what actually happened? I was under the impression they were setting up imported machinery.
It seems grossly inefficient to me to send workers on B1s to pour cement.
Yes. Manufacturing speicifc news agencies have reported on this [0].
Korean and American unions have united to condemn the ICE raids [1], but that doesn't absolve Hyundai-LG for committing labor and immigration abuse.
> It seems grossly inefficient to me to send workers on B1s to pour cement.
It is WAY cheaper than paying the right insurance and US construction salairies ($20k-40k in SK versus $70k-90k in the Georgia).
> It's not just salaries though is it? There's hotels/accommodation, flights, per diems
That's at most $10k post-tax. Paying $70k-90k means also paying around an additional 0.25-0.5x in employer contributions depending on the state in the US.
By bringing in labor from Korea, they are being paid in Won, covered by insurance IN Korea (not the US), and all workman's comp has been paid IN Korea (not the US).
> so there'd be some language friction
Yep, but most of management and the chain in-between in Hyundai (and most Korean companies) are always Koreans or Korean diaspora. This has been a major friction in Vietnam and India as well, where Korean companies like Hyundai-Kia and Samsung would segregate Korean nationals and Korean origin personnel from locals (eg. Separate canteens, separate accommodations, separate per diems) even if they were doing the same work at the same level.
Samsung's chip design office in Gurgaon is notorious for this.
> which you edited later to remove)
I can't reply, so I'm in the process of replying via edits. I accidentally deleted it during the editing process
[0] - https://www.manufacturingdive.com/news/georgia-hyundai-jobsi...
[1] - https://uaw.org/kmwu-and-uaw-joint-statement-we-stand-united...
The statement has a vague mention of the company forcing the workers to shoulder "visa risks". One sentence out of 5 paragraphs.
Most of the condemnation in that statement is about the actual raid. Even UAW, an American union, thought that went too far.
> It is WAY cheaper than paying the right insurance and US construction salairies ($20k-40k in SK)
It's not just salaries though is it? There's hotels/accommodation, flights, per diems. The churn of flying people back and forth. I presume Korean construction workers aren't necessarily fluent in English (I don't know how education there works) so there'd be some language friction. You might as well hire undocumented construction workers who are already in the country (which they have also been doing apparently).
I read both your UAW/Korean union statement (which you edited later to remove) and the manufacturing dive source. Neither of them states what specific work the detained Korean workers were doing. Definitely no mention of mundane construction wors by Korean workers at this site specifically. Although it did state 23% of construction workers in the US are undocumented.
As I said, the media reporting on this has been extremely lax and vague about what actually happened. They either don't know how to report it or don't want people to know for whatever reason.
But this is Hacker News, right? We understand bending of the rules to build things. And the overriding constructive public policy goal here is reindustrialization.
To the extent LG is taking shortcuts with proper visa paperwork out of administrative expedience, that likely points to things that need to be reformed about the rules. To the extent that LG has been doing things directly contrary to public policy but now enforcement is stepping up, it would be better to address those things gradually without interrupting the project. Maybe still a surprise raid to catalog who is doing exactly what on the site, but then gradual "these guy needs to go, you've got two weeks to find local replacements" etc. The only point to doing a massive raid, arrest, detainment, and deportation is the spectacle.
You'll get no argument that our immigration laws aren't broken from me, but isn't it the purview of congress to change them? I'd even go a step further and say this is the root of the dysfunction in America. The belief that inconvenient laws should / can just be bypassed by a strong executive instead of placing pressure on a congress that is afraid to make any hard choices.
I agree with where you're coming from about congress and the executive. The difference is analogous to punching down vs punching up. If the system wants buy in (ie a mandate) from individuals, then it's the responsibility of the system (ie the politicians) to make a sensible set of rules. Take a look at drug criminalization - it's only the very myopic complaining about things like individuals not following nonsensical drug laws.
A multinational corporation obviously sits somewhere in the middle, which requires applying equitable judgement (hence why I called out the "privilege" label as a toxic paradigm). It sure feels like this is the government crushing what is otherwise mostly desirable behavior, behavior directly in line with the current administration's purported overall goals. And at any rate, the situation certainly could have been treated with a much lighter touch.
> This plant that Hyundai-LG has been building has seen multiple, persistent OSHA violations
Sounds like they need an OSHA raid. Maybe the NLRB too.
They did. On multiple occasions under both Biden and Trump. But Hyundai would always shield their liability by creating a shell contracting/consulting firm to hire labor. If one got popped, another one would be spun up.
Heck, it took the DoJ almost 3 years to begin the prosecution against Hyundai and it's partners for using child labor in their Mississippi factory becuase of political interference.
The issue is Hyundai is one of the largest shipbuilders in the world, and "Make American Shipbuilding Great Again" has been a key Biden and Trump policy.
The Japanese shipbuilders chose to invest in Philippines and India over the US because they knew they'd face similar scrutiny over labor practices. Korean companies on the other hand decided to roll the dice.
> If Hyundai can do that, any American company could do it too.
Yet none of them who are working on peer projects to Hyundai-LG's did.
There are dozens of battery gigafactory projects in the US thanks to rhe IRA, but Hyundai-LG's are the only ones with a persistent pattern of labor abuse [0].
> needs to be addressed by putting the labor in chains
I am not disagreeing with you on that point. I am saying supporting that and then jumping to defend Hyundai-LG for breaking the law as well is hypocrisy
> maybe a team sent to Hyundai corporate to crack some heads (figuratively)
They are in South Korea, not the US. Furthermore, Hyundai consistently uses contracting/consulting firms to shield against liability, which was a major reason it took 3 years just to reach a point where the DoJ could begin prosecuting Hyundai for child labor in their MS factories
[0] - https://labornotes.org/2025/09/georgia-battery-plant-raid-sp...
> I am saying supporting that and then jumping to defend Hyundai-LG for breaking the law as well is hypocrisy
I think people are mostly supporting and defending the workers. So far Hyundai-LG hasn't lost anything except face. The workers are the ones who have taken the hit.
If Seoul then shackled those workers and treated them in a way we’d find barely acceptable for POWs, you really think there wouldn’t be an irrational outburst in Washington?
What I'm annoyed at is people trying to argue that Hyundai-LG are guilt-free and did nothing wrong.
Both ICE and Hyundai-LG are in the wrong, but Hyundai-LG could have resolved this problem extremely early when it was flagged by the Biden administration.
Notice how Korean reporting is overwhelmingly about business implications and not at all about persistent issues of labor abuse within Hyundai America. Samsung America is equally as large (if not larger) yet has never had similar scandals year after year.
Laying pipe, pouring concrete, and other manual labor is not covered by the B1/2, VWP, or TN [0][1] visas, but Hyundai America and it's contractors continued to flout existing regulations and norms.
This had been a major pain point in the Biden administration as well.
If equally large and Korean Samsung SDI (as well as European, Japanese, and even Chinese conglomerates) can manage to build gigafactories in the US scandal free, other Korean conglomerates like Hyundai can as well.
[0] - https://www.ajc.com/news/georgia-news/a-total-lie-mexican-en...
[1] - https://www.ajc.com/news/georgia-news/lawsuit-says-hyundai-a...
Like, if I run you over with my car for borrowing my pencil without asking, you’re forgiven for the faux pas.
This is a federal overreach on a business that has broken major labor laws in the US.
And that's why I'm a bit miffed. In all this discuss about ICE's overreach, we are ignoring the very real and persistent disdain Hyundai America has for labor regulations.
It's almost like (rightful) opposition to ICE's overreach is being used to whitewash what is a very very bad employer.
In Korean business and political discourse, the anger isn't about the humanitarian aspect, but the "how dare they even try to do this to us because we have put in so much money".
Being angry about ICE because of overreach and treating labor bad is valid, but feeling slighted that money doesn't buy impunity is not a good reason to be annoyed, and betrays a level of callousness that is sadly all to common in Korea Inc.
If they are blackmailed via tariffs to build factories in the US so that the US becomes self-sufficient, there is no leverage at all. So don't build these factories.
If they can build battery factories, semiconductor fabs, and various other factories in the US without having to resort to the above visa abuses, why can't Korea Inc?
Heck, Daimler built a similar sized factory to Hyundai-LG's in MS relying only on American labor [0]
[0] - https://www.daimlertruck.com/en/newsroom/pressrelease/accele...
You didn't see similar persistent flouting of labor and immigration laws despite all 3 being lead by Asian (and in some cases Korean) companies with similar organizational structures.
Hyundai played it fast and loose. If Samsung SDI can open a gigafactory in the US while following US laws, why can't Hyundai?
Just because ICE was extremely heavy-handed does NOT absolve or give Hyundai-LG the right to break American labor or immigration laws, or ask for special treatment.
Even Biden bluntly told Hyundai leadership to "Hire American" [4] following pushback over this plant.
[0] - https://na.panasonic.com/news/panasonic-energy-begins-mass-p...
[1] - https://www.desotoks.us/394/Panasonic-Electric-Vehicle-Batte...
[2] - https://www.toyota.com/usa/operations/map/tbmnc
[3] - https://news.samsungsdi.com/global/articleView?seq=36
[4] - https://www.ft.com/content/c677b9aa-2e89-4feb-a56f-f3c8452b3...
I'm seeing a lot of demands form the US with the only upside being the privilege to sell stuff to Americans. What can they use those dollars to buy?
If our tax dollars are going to subsidize the construction and development of these factories, then they better follow our laws.
Hyundai is the only malcontent. Every other IRA project has not had a similar kind of scandal.
If Hyundai doesn't want to participate in American Industrial Subsidizes by following our laws, they can return the billions of dollars in subsidizes provided.
> I'm seeing a lot of demands
Follow our laws if you want our subsidizes.
Hire American if you want our subsidizes.
Biden literally told Hyundai's leadership this same thing point blank. [2]
[0] - https://www.ossoff.senate.gov/press-releases/sen-ossoff-lg-e...
[1] - https://e2.org/announcements/
[2] - https://www.ft.com/content/c677b9aa-2e89-4feb-a56f-f3c8452b3...
My understanding is that it is fairly common practice for foreign companies to send experts from their home countries in order to do knowledge transfer, since the skill set isn’t available domestically.
https://x.com/_mm85/status/1964631794260857114
And the added issue is, most other companies (even Korean ones like Samsung) have been able to bring comparable projects online without ending up with the same scandals.
Hyundai has a common and persistent practice of bringing in Koreans from Korea to work manual labor abroad, and was warned by regulators on multiple occasions about this [0], and even their employees in Korea warned management that they were breaking regulations [0]
Even during the Biden admin we warned Korean companies not to play it fast and loose [0]:
"U.S. Department of Commerce official Andrew Gately warned South Korean companies and their contractors last year not to "cut corners" in visa applications. "Please do not put your employees or the employees of your contractors at risk," he said at a seminar in Seoul."
This isn't a Kilmar Abrego Garcia situation, especially given that Korean business media is framing this as a "how dare they touch Koreans after we invest" situation instead of as a humanitarian situation. Why should FDI buy impunity - especially when projects like the Hyundai one were funded by IRA subsidizes.
Installing machinery does not fall under the B visa exemption [1]. An engineering manager advising on software would.
[0] - https://www.reuters.com/business/world-at-work/workers-say-k...
[1] - https://www.uscis.gov/working-in-the-united-states/temporary...
However, it should be addressed at the corporate level, not by targeting the individual workers. They are just doing their jobs under the direction of their employers. Any fraud committed here is by the Hyundai corporation first and foremost.
The treatment of these workers has been exceedingly cruel and should be considered out of bounds in this country, but sadly it has become normalized.
We've done this for over a decade with both Democrats and Republicans in power.
I agree that the treatment was horrendous, but Korean businesses and politicans aren't angry because of the treatment - they are angry because now they cannot use this practice any longer.
The same raid would have happened under the Harris administration, and the same political fallout would have happened.
Even South Korean police continue to use indefinite detention during immigration raids (despite the constitutional court ruling against them) and has notoriously horrid migrant labor rights, so it's very hypocritical when Korean workers arrested were given better conditions than Mongolian, Vietnamese, or Thai migrants caught in similar dragnets in Korea are provided, but there is no interest in Korea to leverage this to better Korea and American labor rights.
ICE has overreached, but then going back and defending Hyundai like a significant number of people are is deeply wrong. The UAw was right to both condemn Hyundai as well as ICE. Yet, a significant portion of people are saying Georgia should be thankful to get this kind of FDI (even though it was thanks to our tax dollars becuase of the IRA).
As an American I am not responsible for the actions of another nation, but I am for those of my own. Therefore it is immaterial to me how Korea treats immigrants, at least not when I am discussing the morality of our system.
Either you have a sense of what is right and wrong when it comes to our fellow human beings or you don’t. Feel free to criticize the actions of the Korean government if you want, that does not absolve the US of its own transgressions.
Where's the evidence of this persistent flouting of immigration laws?
How do you that the other factories don't (or didn't) have the exact same issues & Hyundai was just the first factory that ICE chose to target?
This isn’t just going to impact our relationship with Korea, but also the rest of the world too.
Optics, in international relations, matter a lot.
We have been for years now, but Hyundai has not changed their practices in the US.
From child labor [0] to employees literally crushed to death [1] to constant OSHA failures [2] for over a decade [3], Hyundai's leadership has continued to have a horrid track record on worker safety in the United States.
We have been punishing them for decades, but they do not change. If this is the only way to get a message across to Korea Inc, so be it.
> Optics, in international relations, matter a lot.
Of course.
Yet the optics of a company like Hyundai getting hundreds of millions to billions of dollars in state and federal subsidizes but continuing to flout US laws also matters.
As I mentioned before, Samsung hasn't had similar scandals despite investing a similar amount in the US, nor have Hyundai's peers in Japan.
Using the ICE raid to whitewash Hyundai's obscene labor record (like a number of commentators are doing) is ridiculous.
[0] - https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/30/business/hyundai-child-la...
[1] - https://www.enr.com/articles/60802-third-fatality-recorded-a...
[2] - https://www.wsav.com/news/local-news/osha-construction-worke...
[3] - https://www.dol.gov/newsroom/releases/osha/osha20161214-0
They said to punish the company, but not put hundreds of employees who were told their papers were in order - half of which whose papers were - in literal shackles like they're violent criminals. What the everyday person sees in their news feeds is important and shapes how the US is viewed culturally and as an economic partner.
I'll throw in that we should actually talk about fixing our VISA rules?
Using Hyundai's allegedly obscene labor record to whitewash the ICE raid seems similarly ridiculous.
There are literally countless better ways to deal with this.
Also, given this party is trying to legalize child labor in multiple states, I don’t think they did this because of working conditions.
It's become normalized because it's normal. Illegal immigrants are our friends, loved ones, colleagues, and classmates.
I never expected this administration to successfully remove illegal immigrants because fundamentally at this point removing illegal immigrants means removing our neighbors. I did anticipate they would, and will continue to, unsuccessfully address the problem while causing an awful lot of pain for both immigrants and American citizens (this was inevitable since the problem fundamentally boils down to separating people from their neighbors over something as arbitrary as "borders someone else drew on a map before we were born").
I got older and wiser, and watched several more administrations face-plant when they tried to pretend it was an easy problem with an easy solution.
Best case is this is more of the same, and it wasn't good last time.
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