Korean workers who were arrested and detained by U.S. immigration authorities in Georgia last year are taking legal action against the administration of President Donald Trump. It marks the first legal response to the largest single-workplace immigration raid carried out during Trump's second term.
About 300 Korean workers who were arrested at the construction site of a battery plant jointly built by Hyundai Motor Group and LG Energy Solution in Georgia last year have begun administrative claim procedures against the U.S. government, CNN reported on the 15th. An administrative claim is a mandatory step before filing a lawsuit against the federal government, meaning the workers have effectively begun preparing group litigation against the Trump administration.
A Korean American attorney in Georgia representing the workers said the claims would be submitted by the end of this year to nine federal agencies, including the Department of Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Customs and Border Protection, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Justice Department and the Labor Department.
U.S. immigration authorities raided the battery plant construction site on the grounds of Hyundai Motor's electric vehicle plant in Georgia on Sept. 4 last year, detaining 475 workers. About 300 of them were Korean nationals. Video showing agents putting handcuffs and shackles on the workers' wrists and ankles drew criticism of excessive enforcement in both Korea and the United States.
According to CNN, the claims state that the workers were "unlawfully detained in ICE facilities and subjected to living conditions that undermine human dignity," and that they suffered "intentional emotional distress, humiliation and lasting psychological trauma." The attorney said the remaining workers plan to file claims with largely similar content but did not disclose the specific amount of damages sought.
The U.S. government maintains that the raid was lawful. The Department of Homeland Security said it had executed a court-issued search warrant as part of an investigation into unlawful employment practices and other serious federal crimes.
