I just read this article on Electrek that Hyundai Motor Group will be delaying the construction of its electric vehicle battery plant in Georgia. This is the same plant that was raided by ICE last week. The news comes amid increased scrutiny of labor practices within the automotive supply chain and highlights the complex challenges companies face in establishing their EV production infrastructure.
Production at the battery plant will likely be delayed 2 to 3 months based on what happened as the technical experts installing and validating (the equipment) have left, The CEO of Hyundai told reporters at a Detroit event. This delay assume that some people will be able to come back and help because the knowledge base for the installation of the required machinery is with people from South Korea. No one in the USA has this knowledge base. Almost all battery companies operating in the U.S. are Korean.
I would have to say that a 3 month delay as a result of the delay is either a pipedream or the most optimistic timeline that I have ever seen. Typically a B-1 Visa take 3 to 6 months to get. The challenges that Hyundai and their contractors have is first that they have to find people willing to go to this site in Georgia. The people who were detained may or probably should be reluctant to go back so soon. It will take a few weeks or months to find the right people. Following that, the Visa process will begin and if they get the Visa in 3 months plus the time to find the people that is a minimum of 4 months before these people arrive in the USA. There will be ramp up time as well. I feel that a more realistic delay will range from 6 months to a year, assuming everything works smoothly. There is a major probability that one of the repercussions is that multiple South Korean companies with project here will repatriate their citizens and start the Visa process. This may overwhelm the system causing major delays. The 6 months may turn out to be years if Congress is required to act to increase the number of Visas.
South Korean news agency Yonhap reported the U.S. government wanted the workers to stay, before hundreds eventually returned home on a charter flight. This is strange for the Trump Administration to ask the workers to stay if they were deemed illegal by ICE. Shouldn’t they want them to be kicked out with no option to return? Or does business trump illegal immigration?
Critics have said the raid further exposed the contradictory aspect of Trump’s policy that has leveraged tariffs to attract foreign investments, while employing a hardline immigration policy stoking fears among foreign workers who are needed to drive those investment projects.
It will be interesting to see how these issues develop especially since public perception and respect has a real place in society for South Koreans. How will the South Korean government and these companies proceed with the images of their employees being arrested and handcuffed? Will this cause backlash against these types of investments that require time and effort to heal?