South Korean workers return home after days of detention in Georgia following immigration raid

By KIM TONG-HYUNG and HYUNG-JIN KIM Associated Press INCHEON South Korea AP More than South Korean workers detained in an immigration raid in the United States last week were brought back home on a charter plane and reunited with their loved ones on Friday They were among the people detained during the Sept immigration raid at a battery factory under construction on the campus of Hyundai s sprawling auto plant west of Savannah Georgia Related Articles The Latest Trump says with a high degree of certainty that suspect in Kirk killing caught Bureaucrats clear building at US Naval Academy following reports of threats person injured This day in History September LA commuter train crash kills people FBI releases new video images of person of interest in Charlie Kirk s assassination See video New Mexico is the first state to promise free child care for all families Their roundup and the U S release of video showing selected Korean workers shackled with chains around their hands ankles and waists have caused general outrage and a sense of betrayal in South Korea a key U S ally After their charter plane a Boeing - i from Korean Air landed at Incheon International Airport near Seoul they appeared in an arrivals hall with senior functionaries including presidential chief of staff Kang Hoon-sik clapping hands We feel sorry that we failed to bring them back home earlier but we did our best Kang mentioned Hundreds of journalists gathered at the airport to cover their arrival with a great number of ordinary citizens shouting Welcome back One protester unfurled a huge banner with a photo of U S President Donald Trump and a message criticizing U S immigration crackdowns before precaution leaders persuaded him to stop South Korea s Foreign Ministry requested media to blur the workers faces in videos and photos taken at the airport citing requests by the workers who worried about their privacy The plane carried people who were detained in the Georgia raid of them are South Koreans including a pregnant woman and the rest are Chinese Japanese and Indonesian workers They had been held at an immigration detention center in Folkston miles southeast of Atlanta On the flight back home Kang explained the workers clapped and shouted with happiness Relatives relieved after their loved ones were circulated Families waited anxiously in a multi-level parking lot near the airport terminal As the elevator doors opened each group of workers stepped out to hurried embraces from their relatives Hwang In-song the brother of one worker stated The Associated Press he had been unable to reach his sibling until midnight Thursday when he ultimately received a text message from his brother saying he was safe He stated the past week was the hardest time for their family Family members of South Korean workers who were detained in U S wait for a Korean Air charter plane at the Incheon International Airport in Incheon South Korea Friday Sept Yonhap via AP We urged him if he was okay health-wise and he declared he was in good medical We didn t get to talk much because he was about to board the plane Hwang mentioned Choi Yeon-ju the -year-old mother of another worker mentioned her son s detention was incredibly shocking and stunning But she explained her son also eventually made a short phone call to their family after midnight Thursday He didn t say much about how he was just saying he was okay and telling us not to worry too much she announced waiting with her daughter-in-law and a grandchild Trump halted the workers departure process South Korea revealed Sunday it had reached an agreement with the U S for the Korean workers releases A banner depicting U S President Donald Trump is seen at the arrival terminal of the Incheon International Airport in Incheon South Korea Friday Sept AP Photo Ahn Young-joon The South Korean regime originally sought to bring them back home on Thursday but announced the plan was shelved due to a reason involving the U S side South Korea s Foreign Ministry later reported Trump had halted the departure process to hear from South Korea on whether the Koreans should be allowed to stay to continue their work and help train U S workers or should be sent back to South Korea South Korean agents revealed that one South Korean national who has relatives in the U S eventually chose to stay in the U S The battery plant a joint venture between Hyundai and LG Power Method is one of more than major industrial sites that South Korean companies are as of now building in the United States Speaking at the airport Kim Dong Myung the chief executive officer of LG Capacity Cure downplayed concerns that the raid would cause major delays to the launch of the Georgia factory saying disruptions would be within a level we can manage South Korea calls for change in US visa systems U S personnel revealed a few of the detained Korean workers had illegally crossed the U S margin while others entered legally but had expired visas or entered on visa waivers that prohibited them from working But South Korean administrators and experts have accused the U S of failing to act on its long-running request to improve a visa system to accommodate skilled Korean workers as the U S wants South Korea to expand U S industrial investments In reality South Korean companies have been mostly relying on short-term visitor visas or Electronic System for Expedition Authorization to send workers who are needed to launch manufacturing sites and handle other setup tasks a practice that had been largely tolerated for years South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Hyun who traveled to Washington to negotiate the workers release explained U S agents had agreed to allow them to later return to finish their work at the Georgia site The two countries also agreed to set up a bilateral working group to create a new visa category to make it easier for South Korean companies to send their employees to work in the U S according to Cho s ministry We will discuss all measures including creating a new visa category establishing a new quota and various moves to make obtaining a visa easier Cho described reporters as he returned to South Korea on Friday He explained greater part of the detained workers had short-term B- or B- visas and ESTAs South Korean President Lee Jae Myung on Thursday warned that South Korean companies will likely hesitate to make further investments in the U S unless it improves its visa system The raid was the latest in a series of workplace raids conducted as part of the Trump administration s mass deportation agenda But several South Koreans were stunned because the raid came about two weeks after a summit between Lee and Trump and a little more than a month after South Korea s announcement of a billion expenditure plan in the U S in return for a lowered U S tariff rate Hyung-jin Kim informed from Seoul