Over 300 South Koreans Detained in Georgia Take Legal Action Against Trump Administration

South Korean workers who were mass arrested and detained by U.S. immigration authorities in Georgia last year are taking legal action against the Donald Trump administration.

According to U.S. CNN broadcasting on the 15th (local time), more than 300 South Korean workers who were arrested and detained at the construction site of the Hyundai Motor Group-LG Energy Solution joint venture battery plant last year began filing administrative claims, a preliminary step to a federal lawsuit, against the Trump administration on this day.

A Korean-American attorney representing the workers told CNN that they plan to complete filing claims against nine federal agencies, including the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Customs and Border Protection (CBP), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and the Department of Justice, by the end of the year.

An administrative claim is a mandatory procedure that must be completed before filing a federal lawsuit in the U.S.

This effectively marks the beginning of the workers taking collective legal action against the Trump administration.

U.S. immigration authorities conducted a crackdown at the construction site of the Hyundai Motor electric vehicle plant in Georgia on September 4 of last year, detaining 475 workers.

The vast majority of them, over 300 individuals, were South Koreans.

At the time, footage of heavily armed agents binding on-site workers with handcuffs and leg shackles sparked outrage and concern not only in South Korea but also in the United States.

(Photo: Yonhap News)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.