More than 300 South Korean workers detained and shackled during a huge US immigration raid have begun seeking damages from the federal government, one year after the criminal investigation behind the operation ended without any charges being filed.
The workers were among 475 people detained when almost 500 federal and local officers descended on the Hyundai-LG Energy Solution battery plant in Ellabell, Georgia on 4 September 2025.
At the time, Homeland Security Investigations described it as the largest single-site enforcement operation in its history. CNN reported on the claims and the raid.
Now, more than 300 of the South Korean workers caught up in that operation have begun filing administrative claims against nine US federal agencies, including the Department of Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Customs and Border Protection, the FBI and the Departments of Justice and Labor.
The filings are the mandatory first step towards bringing claims against the US government under the Federal Tort Claims Act. CBS Atlanta reported details of the claims.
Workers allege they were detained unlawfully
The workers allege they were unlawfully arrested and detained, were given inadequate explanations of why they had been taken into custody and were denied interpreters.
They also say they were placed in restraints and required to sign documents they could not understand.
Their claims seek damages for lost work, belongings allegedly confiscated during the operation, psychological harm, false imprisonment and emotional distress. No total figure for the damages being sought has yet been disclosed.
CNN quoted an attorney representing the workers describing the humiliation of engineers being placed in handcuffs and shackles despite, she argues, having travelled legally to the United States to install specialist equipment.
Some former detainees have separately described conditions inside the Folkston ICE Processing Center.
One South Korean worker told Yonhap that detainees were initially crowded into large rooms, with mould reportedly growing on mattresses, little privacy around toilets and foul-smelling drinking water. The worker said some detainees used towels to cope with extremely cold conditions inside the facility. Yonhap reported the detainee’s account.
Those claims remain allegations and have not yet been tested by a court.
A warrant naming four targets
One detail now attracting renewed scrutiny concerns who the original operation was actually supposed to be targeting.
CNN reported that the search warrant supporting the raid identified four target individuals.
None of those four people was among the South Korean workers who were detained.
DHS has maintained that ICE executed a court-authorised warrant as part of an investigation into alleged unlawful employment practices and other federal crimes.
Search warrant documents reported on locally said authorities were investigating an alleged conspiracy to harbour undocumented workers and other illegal employment practices. WTOC later reviewed the case on the first anniversary of the raid.
The immigration status of the South Korean workers, however, quickly became considerably more complicated than the initial portrayal of hundreds of people simply working illegally.
The B-1 visa question
Some of the detained South Koreans had entered the United States on B-1 business visas.
A B-1 visa does not generally allow someone to take ordinary employment in the United States.
But US State Department guidance specifically allows some foreign commercial or industrial specialists to enter under B-1 status to install, service or repair machinery purchased from overseas, or to train US workers, provided detailed conditions are met.
Those conditions include possessing specialist knowledge, receiving no salary from a US source and, for equipment installation or servicing, the work being required under the relevant sales contract. The State Department sets out the B-1 rules here.
Immigration lawyer Charles Kuck, who represented some of those detained, told Reuters after the raid that documentation held by some workers specifically covered activities such as installing and calibrating specialist equipment.
Kuck argued that many should never have been detained. Reuters reported his assessment.
There were nevertheless genuine visa concerns within the wider group. Reuters separately reported that some South Korean companies had been relying on what workers and lawyers described as a grey area in US visa rules, with some employees worried before the raid that the documents being used might not properly cover the work they were being asked to perform.
That makes the legal position more nuanced than either side’s original slogans suggested.
Some returned using the same type of visa
Perhaps most awkwardly for the authorities, some of the South Koreans detained during the raid have since returned to the United States to work at battery plants.
According to reports, some have done so using the same type of B-1 business visa they held when they were detained.
There was another extraordinary twist immediately after the raid.
Despite his administration having just detained the workers, President Donald Trump subsequently offered to allow hundreds of them to remain in the United States so they could help train American workers.
South Korean officials said Trump’s intervention even delayed their charter flight home by a day. Almost all nevertheless chose to return to South Korea.
Trump also said foreign companies investing in the United States should be able to legally bring in highly skilled specialists while training Americans to take over those roles.
One year later: no charges
What happened to the criminal investigation that produced one of the largest workplace immigration raids in US history?
Apparently, nothing resulting in criminal charges.
On the first anniversary of the raid, Georgia television station WTOC asked the US Department of Justice for an update.
A DOJ spokesperson confirmed that no charges had been filed in connection with the case.
Federal court records also showed the case as closed.
WTOC reported that companies which employed the workers had faced no charges or other consequences arising from the investigation either.
So an operation involving hundreds of officers, 475 detentions, armoured vehicles, workers being placed in chains and a diplomatic confrontation between the United States and one of its closest Asian allies ultimately produced no criminal prosecution.
Diplomatic fallout
The images of South Korean workers being handcuffed and shackled caused outrage in South Korea.
Around 300 workers eventually returned home following negotiations between Seoul and Washington, with President Lee Jae Myung warning that the raid could make South Korean companies reconsider future investment in the United States. Reuters reported on their return and the diplomatic fallout.
The incident also exposed a wider problem for the Trump administration.
Washington has encouraged foreign manufacturers to invest billions in new American factories while the companies involved argue that they often need specialist employees from their home countries to install machinery, transfer technical knowledge and train local staff during the early stages of production.
South Korea and the United States subsequently began discussing changes to visa arrangements for specialist Korean workers.
Video
Legal analyst Katie Phang discussed the workers’ claims and the implications of the raid in a recent video.
What happens now?
The workers’ lawyers are expected to continue submitting claims on behalf of the remaining former detainees, with the aim of filing claims for the entire group by the end of 2026.
Under the Federal Tort Claims Act, a claimant ordinarily has to give the relevant federal agency an opportunity to deal with a claim before taking it to court. If the agency has not reached a final decision within six months, the claimant can generally treat that as a denial and proceed towards federal litigation. The relevant federal law is set out in 28 U.S.C. § 2675.
If that happens here, the court battle could force US authorities to give a much fuller account of how the Georgia operation was planned, why hundreds of people outside the four original targets were detained and how officers decided which workers were allegedly violating immigration law.
For more than 300 South Korean workers, the raid may therefore be heading back into the US legal system.
This time, however, they are the ones bringing the case.
