Lutnick says he told Hyundai to get 'right visa,' call him if it has problems: report
In this Getty Images photo, U.S. Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick listens as names of the victims of the 9/11 terror attack are read during the annual 9/11 Commemoration Ceremony at the National 9/11 Memorial and Museum in New York City, Sept. 11. AFP-Yonhap
WASHINGTON — U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said Thursday that he had told Hyundai Motor Group to get the "right visa" and call him if it has visa problems, as he commented on its workers who were arrested in last week's immigration raid at a Georgia battery plant construction site.
He made the remarks in an Axios interview, as 316 Korean workers headed back home in the morning following their release from a detention center in Folkston, Georgia, a week after their arrest in the raid at the site run by a joint Hyundai-LG Energy Solution venture in Bryan County near Savannah.
"I called up the Koreans, I said, oh, give me a break. Get the right visa and if you're having problems getting the right visa, call me. I'll call (Homeland Security Secretary) Kristi Noem," he said during his appearance on the "Axios Show."
"We'll help you get the right visa, but don't do it the wrong way. You can't do things the old way. Donald Trump requires you to do it correctly," he added.
The secretary said that the Korean workers detained in the raid came to the U.S. on tourist visas, emphasizing that Hyundai should have gotten them the "proper visa."
"Hyundai is a total grown-up, more than capable of getting them the proper visa," he said.
He also said that Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials have to "do its job" — a remark backing the immigration operation.
"All these people who are in this country on the wrong visa, change (it)," he said.
"They will fix that. Hyundai will fix it, and they will do it right. But come on, get the right visa. Come on Hyundai. Just do the right process. You knew better than that."
Most of the Koreans arrested in the raid were known to have entered the U.S. on an ESTA visa waiver program or a B-1 short-term business visitor visa — in what has long been a practice for Korean businesses due to difficulty in securing other visas, including an H-1B visa, a nonimmigrant visa for skilled foreign workers.
Both the ESTA visa waiver program and a B-1 short-term business visitor visa do not allow one to receive a salary from a U.S.-based source, among other restrictions.