Sept 15 (Reuters) – More than 300 South Korean workers who were detained in last year’s immigration raid at a Hyundai electric-vehicle manufacturing plant in Georgia are challenging the U.S. government, CNN reported on Tuesday.
Hundreds of workers, most of whom are South Korean nationals, were arrested in a raid at a Hyundai Motor plant by U.S. authorities last September.
Administrative claims on behalf of the workers, a mandatory step before a federal lawsuit, have started to be filed with nine federal agencies, the CNN report said citing a lawyer representing the claimants.
The Department of Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Customs and Border Protection, the FBI and the Departments of Justice and Labor were among the agencies, it added.
The raid targeting the Georgia plant, operated through a joint venture between Hyundai and South Korea’s LG Energy Solution was described as the largest single-site enforcement operation in the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s history.
The video and photos of workers shackled at the wrists, waist and ankles sent shockwaves through South Korea, a key Asian ally of the United States.
Workers’ phones were confiscated, and some were unable to inform their families back home until their eventual release.
Hyundai did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment outside regular business hours. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
(Reporting by Hyunsu Yim in Barcelona and Ananya Palyekar in Bengaluru)
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