[second_brekkie]

I happen to know someone well who works for a Korean Conglomerate building industrial/car batteries in the US.

When you do construction work, or operate the production line it has to be done by American Labour.

The visas they have only cover setup, repair and education of the production line.

At that LG/Hyundai factory they were using Korean contractors for construction. So there was some breaking of the terms of the visa for at least some of the people.

However, ICE didn't need to arrest everyone. All they needed to do was send a warning. These companies don't want the trouble, they would comply.

Now you have many Koreans very upset. And people in my friends company are now scared to go to America even though they are management.

It's not good for anyone, it's just so short sighted!

[darth_avocado]

It used to be a wink wink agreement between the US and Korea. Yes, Korean companies break rules, but a lot of it tends to be directly related to the terms put in by the government. There’s milestones and deadlines that need to be met to ensure money gets released. But we all know what happens to construction projects here. There were some people definitely working on wrong visas.

https://www.ft.com/content/c677b9aa-2e89-4feb-a56f-f3c8452b3...

[dboreham]

Anyone who has worked for a larger than mom and pop company outside the US, who has been sent to the US by their company for some reason knows that the legality of their presence and type of visa needed is top of mind. Triple so when the company is as large as Hyundai. For certain they retain a specialist US immigration law firm.

[jjani]

> I happen to know someone well who works for a Korean Conglomerate building industrial/car batteries in the US.

You could just say you know someone at LG ;)

> However, ICE didn't need to arrest everyone. All they needed to do was send a warning. These companies don't want the trouble, they would comply.

The point is to reach quotas. Warnings and voluntary exits don't help with those.

> Now you have many Koreans very upset.

FWIW, the reaction among Koreans (i.e. in korea), especially the younger generation, has been quite mixed. Among age 20-39, only a minority expressed being "disappointed with the US' excessive measures". Among the older groups, the majority did react negatively.

[sterlind]

> Among age 20-39, only a minority expressed being "disappointed with the US' excessive measures."

huh? why??

[jjani]

The most common reasons among those who did not express disappointment:

- They'd want the very same thing to happen if the roles were reversed: foreign companies in Korea bringing in hundreds of people on questionable visas

- The companies knew exactly what they were doing, that it was illegal and that they were at risk. This had been coming for some time. Cases had been starting to pop up of those trying to do multiple consecutive visa runs (blatant abuse, but often instructed by these same companies) being denied.

- The employees who get sent on these business trips are often privileged and rich, so some take pleasure in seeing them not get away with something for once.

- Korean young MAGAs who love the concept of deportation and the current US gov

[Workaccount2]

Authoritarians love strong message optics, for better or worse or much worse.

[onetokeoverthe]

Agree. Worse than short sighted.

Blindly foolish.

S Korea is an ally, treat them as such.

They're building a factory in the US. Be nice!