Immigration crackdown delays Hyundai-LG battery plant in Georgia by 2–3 months: report

A Department of Homeland Security police officer directs buses transporting workers detained in a huge U.S. immigration raid last week on a car battery plant, as they arrive at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, where workers are expected to board a Korean chartered plane sent to repatriate them, in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. Sept. 11. Reuters-Yonhap

WASHINGTON — Construction work on a Korean battery plant site in Georgia is being set back by two to three months due to labor shortages, a news report said Thursday, as hundreds of Korean workers there headed back home following last week's U.S. immigration crackdown on the site.

Hyundai Motor Co. CEO Jose Munoz made the remarks, Bloomberg reported, commenting on the impact of the immigration raid at the construction site for a joint venture between Hyundai Motor Group and LG Energy Solution in Bryan County near Savannah on Sept. 4.

"This is going to give us a minimum two to three months delay, because now all these people want to get back," he was quoted by Bloomberg as saying. "Then you need to see how can you fill those positions. And for the most part, those people are not in the U.S."

A total of 316 Korean workers headed back home aboard a chartered plane on Thursday after their release from a detention center in Folkston, Georgia.

U.S. authorities said they were found to be working illegally in the U.S., including those on short-term or recreational visas that bar them from working. Most Korean workers are said to have been on B-1 temporary visitor visas or entered through the visa waiver program.