[pnw]

Yes, they all lacked work visas. Allegedly Hyundai subcontracted out the work to third parties who didn't bother to get work visas for their employees.

Maybe Korean companies are used to getting away with that kind of thing? Seems fairly short sighted given the current focus on immigration.

[Ancapistani]

Hyundai has a history of allowing - either knowingly/intentionally or not - subcontractors to violate US labor law.

Example from 2022: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyundai_Alabama_child_labor_al...

[JKCalhoun]

Also short-sighted: pissing off our international partners that we would rather build factories in the U.S.

[pnw]

South Korea deports Canadians and Americans regularly for not obtaining the correct visas.

https://www.vancouverobserver.com/news/we-are-scared-and-we-...

[pavel_lishin]

I appreciate you linking a source, but this is a one-time story about 14 teachers from 2017.

[sndean]

I don’t doubt that some Americans are deported each year from South Korea but I was unable to find any examples in the news other than this one in 2017. I wonder how regular it really is, or maybe it doesn’t get reported by any news source?

[orwin]

Do they cuff and detain them publicly?

I mean, I understand public humiliation is something Usians like, but was it necessary here? To me, punishing the workers is so unimaginably cruel and pointless...

[pylua]

Assuming that they are in illegally, the U.S. is the party that should be upset. If you are going to do business in the U.S. then you need to follow us laws.

[yongjik]

You can say you're (rightfully) upset, without throwing employees of a major investor onto a jail without functioning toilets.

The problem is that the US is sending deeply conflicting messages. Does it want Hyundai's investment or not? It's not that Hyundai needs to build a factory in the middle of nowhere in Georgia.

[runsWphotons]

It wants Hyundai's investment and it wants to create American jobs and also have Hyundai follow the laws. The extremity of the right is fueled by an apparently prevalent reluctance to enforce any rules.

[binary132]

It sounds weirdly like you’re saying that one of the conditions of Hyundai doing business in the US is that we turn a blind eye to them breaking our labor laws, but I’m sure you couldn’t really mean that.

[pnw]

They are not Hyundai employees. Hyundai subcontracted the work out, and the subcontractors failed to file for work visas.

The problem is Hyundai chose their subcontractors very poorly.

[pavel_lishin]

The meaning of the comment of the person you're replying to doesn't significantly change if you replace "employees of" to "contractors of". You're picking at nits.

[throwawaymaths]

So companies should be able to bribe the government and skirt laws at their expedience?

[mcphage]

> So companies should be able to bribe the government and skirt laws at their expedience?

That is the current administration’s policy, yes.

[Redoubts]

> jail without functioning toilets.

This claim isn’t in the article. Articles that do mention the detention site mention one with a medical center and a library

[ivewonyoung]

> It's not that Hyundai needs to build a factory in the middle of nowhere in Georgia.

Then why is it doing so? I'm lost.

Are you implying that it's an act of charity towards the US with zero expectation of or potential for profit? Then why doesn't Hyundai just save the management trouble and donate to a charity?

[karmasimida]

I can see your argument here.

But if you take things at face value, this isn’t a case where ICE is going berserker mode. They went through investigation and obtained search warrants.

Regardless how they handle detention, the only conclusion is to send them back. Thankfully it seems swift so the workers won’t endure long uncertainty.

Last but not least. One of the arguments of said investment, is to boost local employment, in exchange of other benefits, mostly tax reduction. It is a two way door

[pylua]

I’m having trouble following this argument. Are you saying Hyundai built this factory expecting to gain nothing in return ?

It’s only logical that if you operate in the U.S. you follow basic U.S. laws.

[JKCalhoun]

Someone trying to be diplomatic might, for example, allow them a window of time within which to apply to extend their visas.

[Redoubts]

Why? they’re being subsidized to hire Americans, not exploit foreign undocumented workers

[pylua]

My reading of the situation is that it was done maliciously or with negligence. Extending the visa a non work visa doesn’t make any sense.

I have sympathy for the workers. In reality it is the immmigration attorneys or other members of the company who need to be sanctioned.

[refurb]

They never had valid work visas in the first place.

[JKCalhoun]

I was speaking with regards to this from the article: "…others had entered the country legally but had expired visas…"

[detaro]

> Yes, they all lacked work visas.

Source?

[pnw]

This press conference is the source of all of the articles.

https://www.youtube.com/live/AD7n_nSOorU

4:30 Describes the search warrants and arrests.

5:10 "475 were illegally present in the United States"

6:25 "Majority were Korean nationals"

No criminal charges yet. It's an ongoing investigation.

[PhantomHour]

> 5:10 "475 were illegally present in the United States"

Not quite; The figure includes those with visa.

"Illegally present in the United States or in violation of their presence in the united states, working unlawfully"

This also leaves open the question of what "violation of the visa" entails here. They may well have been working within their visas, only for ICE to arbitrarily rule otherwise.

[pnw]

He specifically mentions illegal entry and visa waiver, neither of which are work visas.

[ivewonyoung]

It gets a little confusing because ESTA(which South Koreans are eligible for) is valid for both tourist and business use, and is a visa waiver.

As this comment[1] states with an official source:

> A B-1 visa may be granted to specialized workers going to the United States to install, service, or repair commercial or industrial equipment or machinery purchased from a company outside of the United States, or to train U.S. workers to perform such services.

Maybe the business use of ESTA also covers the above use cases?

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45164008

[karmasimida]

If the people arrested here still have valid work visa it will become its own breaking news almost immediately

[dpkirchner]

Only if the media bothered to investigate, of course. As it is all we're getting are press releases.

[insane_dreamer]

Who cares! They were building a factory in the US which is what we want other countries to do.

This was done for theatre effect.