Most of them train U.S. workers, then go home.
Some experts call it a baffling, ‘performative’ raid U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement launched the roundup last week at a manufacturing site that state officials have touted as Georgia’s largest economic development project.
U.S. work visa categories make it a challenge to bring in foreign workers quickly and easily, said Kevin Miner, an immigration lawyer in Atlanta.
Julia Gelatt, associate director of the U.S. immigration policy program at the Migration Policy Institute, said work visas — like nearly all other aspects of the U.S. immigration system — need reform.
“Our visa system does not envision this kind of scenario,” Gelatt said, of bringing in skilled foreign workers needed for the initial setup of factories.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is attempting to attract foreign investment to the United States in order to revive American manufacturing. S. . has directly conflicted with his other top priority, which is to combat illegal immigration.
President Lee Jae Myung of South Korea issued a warning that other companies in the country might be hesitant to accept Trump’s invitation to invest heavily in the United States, just one week after immigration officials raided a large Hyundai battery plant in Georgia, arrested over 300 South Korean workers, and displayed footage of some of them chained.
Most of the South Koreans who had been detained were flown home after their release on Thursday.
Suppose the U. S. . “Establishing a local factory in the United States will either come with severe disadvantages or become very difficult for our companies” if visas for technicians and other skilled workers required to launch plants cannot be issued quickly, Lee stated Thursday. They will question whether they ought to proceed at all. “”.
The raid and ensuing diplomatic crisis demonstrate how the Trump administration’s objective of mass deportations is clashing with its attempts to import foreign currency to fuel the U.S. S. boost the economy and add more jobs. Actions like restricting visas and enforcing immigration laws in the workplace run the risk of offending allies who are promising to invest hundreds of billions of dollars in the United States. S. . to stay clear of high tariffs.
Already, South Korea invests heavily in the US.
Trump’s economic goal is to force manufacturing back to the United States by imposing high import duties, including a 15 percent tax on South Korean goods. S. . He has stated on numerous occasions that foreign businesses can avoid his tariffs by producing in the United States. Already a major investor, South Korea promised to contribute $350 billion to the U.S. S. . in July, when the two parties declared a trade agreement.
In 2022, it invested more than any other nation in new construction, including factories, on undeveloped land. According to the U.S., it had $93 billion in total U.S. investment last year, including acquisitions of already-existing businesses, placing it 12th in the world. S. Analysis of the Economy Bureau.
However, the dramatic arrest of South Koreans and other individuals involved in the battery plant’s setup poses a threat to the investment drive. Trump does appear to be attempting to repair the harm.
Trump pledged to “make it quickly and legally possible for you to do so” while urging foreign investors to “LEGALLY bring your very smart people.”. “.”.
Speaking Thursday, White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson said, “President Trump will continue to deliver on his promise to make the United States the best place in the world to do business, while also enforcing federal immigration laws.”.
Currently, immigration experts are perplexed and South Koreans are incensed. For many years, foreign corporations have been sending technical experts from their home countries to assist in the opening of plants in the United States. Examples of these companies are the German and Japanese automakers that have established factories in the Midwest and South of the United States. The majority train U. S. laborers, then retire home.
Lee Branstetter, a professor of economics and public policy at Carnegie Mellon University who has researched Japanese auto plants in the United States, stated that “Japanese managers, senior engineers, and other technical experts had to come to the United States to set this stuff up.”. A.
American businesses follow suit, sending U.S. S. . workers abroad in order to launch operations.
It is described as a perplexing, “performative” raid by some experts.
U. A. Georgia’s largest economic development project, according to state officials, is a manufacturing site where Immigration and Customs Enforcement began the raid last week.
“I find it extremely puzzling why this raid would have taken place,” stated Ben Armstrong, executive director of the Industrial Performance Center at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. These workers’ existence shouldn’t have come as a shock. “.”.
U. S. Retired immigration attorney Dan Kowalski stated that “raiding and arresting and putting them in chains and shackles is 100 percent performative” and that immigration officials could have audited the workers’ documents without the drama. “.”.
Kowalski, a writer and editor now, explained that it was because he “wanted to look tough — arresting as many foreigners as possible for the photo-op.”.
U. A. Work visa categories make it difficult to swiftly and easily bring in foreign workers, according to Atlanta immigration attorney Kevin Miner.
Some are limited to managers and executives, have a cap for seasonal workers, or operate on a very competitive lottery system. There are stringent employment restrictions on other short-term visas.
South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Hyun said that following a meeting with Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Washington this week, the two countries decided to form a joint working group to discuss the creation of a new visa category that would facilitate the sending of South Korean employees to work in the United States.
This weekend, Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau is also scheduled to travel to Seoul.
demands changes be made to the US visa system.
This “desire to get this thing up and running as quickly as possible” confronted the frequently laborious procedures that the U.S. A. government requirements to grant business visas,” Carnegie Mellon’s Branstetter stated.
U. S. According to the authorities, the people who were arrested were “illegally working” at the plant. The “vast majority” of the South Korean workers were performing work permitted by a visa program, according to Charles Kuck, an attorney for a number of the detained South Koreans.
Associate Director Julia Gelatt of the U.S. A. According to the Migration Policy Institute’s immigration policy program, work visas, like almost every other element of the U.S. S. Immigration reform is necessary.
“This type of scenario of bringing in skilled foreign workers required for the initial setup of factories is not something that our visa system anticipates,” Gelatt stated. The U. A. has a few visa categories that are specific to certain countries, such as those from Mexico, Australia, or Singapore, which facilitate the entry of certain foreign workers.
Armstrong of MIT stated that the objective should be to streamline foreign direct investment as much as possible. “”.
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