South Korean employees held detained in immigration -Invall leaves Atlanta and go home

Atlanta -An airplane with more than 300 employees from South Korea who were held during an immigration -Staring in a battery factory in Georgia Last week Atlanta left shortly before noon on Thursday, on the way to South Korea.

The employees traveled earlier in the day with a bus from a detention center in Southeast -Georgia to Atlanta for their flight, which is expected to land in South Korea on Friday afternoon. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of South Korea said that the prisoners released by American authorities were 316 Koreans, 10 Chinese nationals, three Japanese nationals and one Indonesian.

The workers belonged to about 475 people held up during last week’s raid in the battery factory under construction on the Hyundai’s vast car factory west of Savannah. They were held in an immigration -detention center in Folkston, 285 miles (460 kilometers) southeast of Atlanta.

The president of South Korea, Lee Jae Myung, called on Thursday to improve the visa system of the United States and said that Korean companies will probably hesitate to make new investments in the US until it happens.

During a press conference, Lee said that Korean and American officials had a back and forth discussion about the question of whether the prisoners should be fascinated while traveling to Atlanta-IS-IS that the Koreans strongly oppose. He said there was also a debate about whether they would leave under “voluntary departure” or deportation.

While those discussions were underway, American officials began to reduce the possessions of the prisoners. When, however, “everything suddenly stopped,” Lee said, adding that they were told that this was due to instructions from the White House.

“President Trump had indicated that the (prisoners) had to return home freely and those who did not want to go did not have to be,” he said. “We were told that, because of that instruction, the process was paused and the administrative procedures were changed accordingly.”

A South Korean civil servant of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the diplomatic process, said that Trump had stopped the process to hear from South Korea about whether the Koreans should continue to continue their work and to train American employees or to be sent to South Korea.

Lee said that the US gave the prisoners the choice between staying and going home. In the end, a South Korean national who has family members in the US to stay, said Lee.

The massive deportation agenda of the Trump administration has included a series of raids in the workplace, but it was noticeable for its scope and the fact that the target was promoted a production officers of production as the largest economic development project in Georgia. Hyundai Motor Group started producing EVs a year ago at the $ 7.6 billion factory, which employs around 1,200 people.

A plane leaves with Korean workers who were held on Thursday at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport in Atlanta.

George Walker IV/AP

Hide caption

Schakel Caption

George Walker IV/AP

In a statement on Wednesday, the GOV office emphasized. Brian Kemp his “strong relationship with the Republic of Korea and Korean partners such as Hyundai, and extended for 40 years to establish the Georgia trade agency in Seoul.”

“We are grateful to repeat their dedication to adhere to all national and federal laws, just as we do not commit this unfortunate incident not to allow the decades of mutual useful partnerships that we have built together,” said a spokesperson.

The detention of South Korean nationals also made the raid unusual because they do not often get entangled in enforcement actions for immigration.

Video released by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement On Saturday showed a caravan of vehicles that drove to the site and then federal agents who drive up employees to stand outside. Some detainees were instructed to put their hands against a bus while they were searched and then chicken around their hands, ankles and waist. Others had plastic tires on their wrists while they stepped into a prisoners’ bus bus in Georgia.